Pubdate: Sat, 21 Oct 2017
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2017 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Derrick Penner
Page: A12

OPIOID OVERDOSES A NATIONAL CRISIS: SINGH

New NDP leader supports harm-reduction model

The response to Canada's opioid overdose problem should be elevated as
a national issue with a significant harm reduction approach, new NDP
Leader Jagmeet Singh said during his first visit to Vancouver as party
head Friday.

"Thousands of people are dying in our country as a result of this
crisis and it needs to be named a national crisis first," said Singh,
speaking after taking a tour of Chinatown.

Singh's first official visit to the city after winning the federal NDP
leadership Oct. 1 came a day after the City of Vancouver released the
latest grim statistics on the overdose crisis - 275 suspected overdose
deaths to the end of Oct. 9 - and a week after it was revealed that
possible overdose deaths across B.C. surpassed all of 2016 at the end
of August with 1,013.

Singh said he supports the decriminalization of personal possession of
drugs, and favours the Portuguese model of harm reduction, which leans
heavily on treating addiction as a health and social justice issue
with most resources directed at treatment, mental health services, and
rehabilitation rather than criminalizing addicts.

"They (Portugal) found a dramatic decrease in deaths and less
addiction," Singh said. "That should be the focus if we really want to
address the opioid crisis, and really want to reduce the significant
and terrible deaths," he said. Vancouver East NDP MP Jenny Kwan
escorted her new leader on the Chinatown tour to visit historic
buildings, and introduce him to the changing neighbourhood's history
as Singh begins his campaign to build support ahead of the 2019
federal election.

Singh, a former Ontario MPP, ran as something of an outsider in the
NDP leadership (his competitors were all sitting MPs) and said that
for now he is comfortable holding the job without attempting to take a
seat in Parliament.

Singh said Jack Layton, who died in 2011, was elected to head the
party while he was still a Toronto city councillor and went on to
become the NDP's most successful leader by taking time to create a
national following rather than immediately running in a byelection.

"I want to spend time connecting with Canadians, hearing their issues
and proposing our values and our vision," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Matt