Article content

The pending legalization of recreational cannabis has opened peoples’ minds to the idea of responsible regulation of other drugs. At the same time, public-health officials from Toronto and Montreal have publicly endorsed ending the criminalization of people who use drugs, as a key tool for implementing a public-health response to the opioid crisis.

The window of opportunity is now wide open, and a real debate is beginning.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Opinion: It's time to admit 'war on drugs' has failed Back to video

But what are the options for dealing with the realities of illegal drug use and criminally controlled drug markets?

“Legalizing all drugs” may seem a frightening proposition. But it becomes a perfectly reasonable option when seen as pragmatic regulation and risk management for certain products and behaviours that prohibition and repression have only made more problematic. Regulation of risky products and behaviours is a key role of government and is the norm in most policy arenas. It’s prohibition that is the failed and radical experiment here. Nor are legally regulated drugs purely hypothetical. For example, Swiss doctors have been prescribing heroin for the last 25 years to stabilize and treat people with heroin dependency.