I absolutely support this motion - but once again it is frustrating to see that the action items here are to write letters. I understand that these are the mechanisms and channels you have to use to make change, but to someone like me -who is losing friends & community members /1

to unnecessary death at a staggering rate - it seems mind-boggling that a motion to write letters even has to be made. The lack of urgency and the narrow scope of this motion is extremely troubling, but I hope that council votes for it unanimously in its current form.

I am encouraged to see a commitment to seeking a federal exemption from the Controlled Drugs & Substances Act. Decriminalizing personal possession is a great first step in protecting the lives and futures of Black, Indigenous and other racialized and marginalized folx.

The tools of the war against people who use drugs: surveillance, policing and imprisonment, and stigmatization, do nothing to solve the economic, social and political problems that give rise to their circumstances.

In Vancouver - possession is de facto decriminalized, as Police are in the common practice of confiscating or destroying peoples substances or paraphernalia and not applying charges. This kind of behaviour - bullying and intimidation, destruction and theft of property, triggers -

responses that manifest as the problematic behaviour and street disorder that the Police are charged with preventing. If someone steals your personal stash, you don’t stop needing to use. The desperation ramps up, and the hustle begins, for money to replace the what you lost

- and you just might do whatever you have to do to get it. I hope to see measures taken to ensure that the Police are not continuing to engage in this kind of sanctioned theft if an exemption is granted. Administrative fines are not an appropriate response to health problems.

I hope that in conversations with the VCH Chief Medical Health Officer and the Federal Ministers of Health, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, & Justice and Attorney General council will seriously explore opportunities to collaborate creatively and rapidly expand access to

#safesupply with the help of companies like Fair Price Pharma and @MySafeProject - which are aiming to provide legal alternatives to the poisoned illicit market.

The CDSA exemption should go hand in hand with pressure on the BC Government to expand Pharmacare to ensure access to injectable heroin and other substances with a prescription.

All three levels of government should allow for the domestic production of a safe supply of pharmaceutical heroin and other substances to folx who are at risk of overdose (which is anyone who uses illicit drugs, as we know - Fentanyl/Carfentanil/Benzos found in everything today)

We need a legal alternative to the poisoned supply that will disrupt the local illicit market and if it doesn’t force them out of the business, then at the very least - it might encourage them to make better, cleaner, drugs.

We need to make amendments to the Police Act, The Mental Health Act, Vancouver Charter and By-Laws in ways that will meaningfully address this crisis, and support evidence-based solutions that are ready to deploy.

The Police are not equipped to respond to any of the concurrent health crises that we are living through, and continuing to shift from criminalization to care is imperative if we want to make lasting and transformative changes in our community.

AMEN.