Report from Dr. Bonnie Henry recommended all illicit drugs be made readily available and sold without prescription

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Thank God the B.C. government has rejected the latest reckless proposals from safer-supply advocate Dr. Bonnie Henry.

In a new report released Thursday, Henry, the Provincial Health Officer, recommended that B.C. legalize drugs through a “non-medical” model of “safer supply” wherein substances like fentanyl, crystal meth and cocaine could be obtained without prescription. The province’s NDP government immediately dismissed the idea — which was praiseworthy, because Henry’s report was unscientific and irresponsible.

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According to Henry, the “main driver” of Canada’s overdose crisis is “a prohibitionist approach to drugs that has produced a highly toxic unregulated drug supply.” If all addictive substances could be manufactured and purchased legally, in a regulated manner that would assure their quality, then countless lives could be saved, she reasons.

But there is almost no evidence to back up these claims. The report itself acknowledges that there is “little published information” on full-scale drug legalization and that existing research only explores “potential approaches” (a.k.a.: this research is theoretical).

Faced with an evidentiary void, the report relied on conjecture, specious arguments and misrepresentations. For example, Henry’s team compared the legal sale of hard drugs to the sale of toys, groceries, clothing and marijuana. You wouldn’t want your children to play with counterfeit figurines that could have lead in them, so why criminalize drugs and force users to access illegally manufactured substances? Drug legalization “simply follows the same quality control and consumer safety protections that are in place for other products,” argued the report.

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