Skip to main content
Start of content
Start of content

e-4292 (Health)

E-petition
Initiated by Ethan Edstrom from Calgary, Alberta

Original language of petition: English

Petition to the Government of Canada

Whereas:
  • Between July 2016 and January 2021, opioid overdoses accounted for over 24,626 deaths, with 90% of these deaths occurring from the use of non-pharmaceutical opioids;
  • In the two weeks post-release, an incarcerated individual’s risk for overdose is 56x higher than that of the general population;
  • Lowest-income neighbourhoods exhibited more opioid-related deaths, hospital admissions, emergency department visits, and neonatal abstinence syndrome. The rates of opioid-related harms in the lowest income quintile were at least double that of the highest income quintile within all of these categories;
  • There is up to 5-fold greater opioid-related hospitalizations among Indigenous people compared to non-Indigenous people; and
  • Federal, provincial, and municipal leadership across Canada have called for urgent action, including drug policy reform and increased funding for wraparound supports.
We, the undersigned, residents and citizens of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to:
1. Refine the national approach to treating substance use disorder to emphasize evidence-based harm reduction strategies like safe consumption sites, safer supply, and drug checking services;
2. Provide additional conditional funding to provinces for the implementation and expansion of these programs in order to facilitate access; and
3. Incorporate decriminalization of simple possession of substances in the national overdose strategy in order to allow substance use disorder to be treated as a medical and social issue rather than a criminal one.
Open for signature
March 16, 2023, at 10:27 a.m. (EDT)
Closed for signature
July 14, 2023, at 10:27 a.m. (EDT)
Photo - Lisa Marie Barron
Nanaimo—Ladysmith
New Democratic Party Caucus
British Columbia
Disclaimer regarding petitions