KITCHENER — The opioid epidemic that has killed thousands across Canada and hundreds in this community in recent years isn't an overdose crisis, federal Green party leader Elizabeth May said during a campaign stop in Kitchener Monday afternoon, but a poisoning crisis.

If elected, the party would decriminalize illicit drug possession, ensure people have access to screened and safe drugs that aren't contaminated with the deadly opioid fentanyl, increase funding to community-based organizations to test drugs, and make kits that contain the life-saving drug Naloxone more widely available to help reverse overdoses.

"It's a health crisis, not a criminal law matter," May said at the House of Friendship. "We need to decriminalize illicit drugs so we can ensure a safe supply."

The party would also declare the opioid crisis a national health emergency, May said.

Between January and August of this year, there were more than 800 overdose calls in Waterloo Region, nearly eclipsing the 853 calls in all of 2018. From January to Aug. 2, 46 people died of an overdose-related death, close to the 53 that died all of last year.

The Green party unveiled its uncosted platform Monday morning and May was in Kitchener touring the House of Friendship's supportive housing units on Eby Street South. Ensuring a safe drug supply at safe consumption sites can help pair addicts with addiction counsellors and other community services, she said.

"If everybody who has an addiction knows the street drugs aren't safe, but I can go to a harm reduction site ... and know the drug has been screened, then we can begin to put people on the road to recovery," May said.

The party leader said the full cost of their platform would be available in the next week or so.

The Region of Waterloo plans to open a safe consumption site at 150 Duke St. W., but the concept has seen pushback in the community. Four possible sites were originally identified — two in Kitchener and two in Cambridge.

More than one-third of overdose calls in the region — 35.5 per cent — occur in private homes, while almost 24 per cent occur outdoors.

Kitchener-Centre Green party candidate Mike Morrice said these sites are a critical step in reducing overdose deaths.

"The answer is not safe injection sites alone; we need to ensure everyone has a safe, dignified place to call home, and we need to address mental health in the community," he added.

House of Friendship executive director John Neufeld said all of the major parties have been invited to discuss how their platforms would address poverty, homelessness, drug addiction, affordable housing, and other community issues that the nonprofit deals with every day.

More than 2,600 people receive addiction treatment or support from House of Friendship each year, and about 34 per cent of the agency's $10.7 million operating expenses last year went to addiction treatment, according to the agency's annual community report.

More than 11,000 Canadians have died from a suspected opioid-related overdose since January 2016. And the rate of overdose deaths is increasing, with nearly 4,500 deaths in 2018 alone.

The region's manager of harm reduction Grace Bermingham told The Record in an email that "while decriminalization or safe supply approaches have been discussed as being part of the solution of the complex opioid crisis, it is outside the jurisdiction of local public health."

Region of Waterloo Public Health is focused on supporting the integrated drug strategy, which includes the consumption and treatment site on Duke Street.

A party spokesperson for the federal NDP told The Record in an email that Canada must move from a criminal justice approach to a public health approach, including ending the criminalization and stigma that comes with drug addiction.

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau has said in the past the party would not consider full decriminalization, but Toronto-area Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith has pushed for the policy change within the party.

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The Conservative Party did not respond to a request for information on the party's position toward decriminalization, but past statements from the party have indicated they favour a "recovery and prevention" strategy.

jjackson@therecord.com

Twitter: @JamesDEJ

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