Protesters carrying signs saying “Injustice is fatal!” laid dozens of white carnations next to a coffin on the steps of Montreal City Hall Tuesday, each representing a life lost to a drug overdose.
A coalition of community groups, crisis workers, activists and drug users held a demonstration demanding the government repeal drug laws that marginalize drug users. They also held a moment of silence — joining several vigils held simultaneously across Canada. The opioid crisis claimed nearly 3,000 lives in 2016, and the estimated death toll last year is pegged at 4,000 people.
“It’s a sad fact that if we are gathered here, it’s because there are too many of us who have died,” said Jean Francois Mary, director of a provincial association that promotes drug users’ health, the Association quebecoise pour la promotion de la sante des personnes utilisatrices de drogues (AQPSUD). “And the number of deaths continue to rise” everywhere, including Quebec.
“It’s obvious that prohibition and the war on drugs is a bitter failure,” he said. Yet governments don’t seem to grasp the scale of what is happening or understand why harm reduction measures taken so far have little impact, Mary said. In the United States alone, 60,000 people have died of opioid-related drug overdoses, and Mexico’s drug cartels are responsible for killing thousands more, he noted.
Only true legalization will work, and that means a total absence of penalties for drug consumption, possession or trafficking, Mary said. It’s the only approach that takes into account the reality of drug consumption, he said.
