Ottawa formally rejects Toronto’s request to decriminalize hard drugs

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The federal government has officially turned down Toronto’s request to decriminalize drugs for personal use, saying the proposal does not adequately protect public health and maintain public safety.

In a statement sent late Friday, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Ya’ara Saks said Toronto’s proposal was rejected because of “concerns with feasibility and ability for law enforcement to implement the proposed model, protection of youth, and lack of support from key players including the province of Ontario.”

“This government remains committed to addressing substance use and addiction as a health issue. All partners must work together to make available and accessible health and social supports so that we can divert people from the criminal justice system into the healthcare system,” Ms. Saks said.

The federal government’s decision formally ends a process that had been stalled amid intense criticism of British Columbia’s experiment with decriminalization, which took effect last year and was significantly scaled back earlier this month, at the province’s request, after complaints about public drug use and disorder.

Toronto’s health board submitted its application to Health Canada in 2022 as part of its response to an overdose crisis that claimed more than 500 lives in the city that year.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has been staunchly opposed to Toronto’s proposal and has ramped up the pressure in recent days, calling on the city to withdraw its application. While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had previously said such an application could not go ahead without provincial support, Toronto’s request had not been formally turned down until Friday.

Mr. Ford responded to the news of Toronto’s rejected request on the social-media site X with one word: “Good.”

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow previously told The Globe and Mail the debate over decriminalization was a “diversion” and that decriminalization would not work without other elements in the city’s plan, which include dramatically ramping up drug-treatment capacity. The city’s application was made before Ms. Chow took office last year.

Head of Toronto health board concedes drug decriminalization effort won’t succeed

Toronto’s medical officer of health, Dr. Eileen de Villa, issued a statement Friday after Ottawa rejected the application, defending decriminalization as an “evidence-informed policy tool to help remove barriers to care.”

She said the federal rejection means “the need to invest in other available evidence-based interventions is all the more critical.”

Ottawa’s rejection of Toronto’s decriminalization request happened on the same day that Mr. Ford called on the federal government to stop approving safer-supply drug sites and to conduct a formal review of current ones in the province.

Mr. Ford sent a letter to the Prime Minister asking that Ottawa require provincial support for safer-supply sites in his province. In safer-supply programs, medical professionals prescribe controlled substances as a safer alternative to the illegal drug supply.

“In Ontario, due to Health Canada’s siloed approval process, the province is completely in the dark about where these federally approved sites are operating and the quantity of controlled and illegal substances they dispense,” Mr. Ford wrote in the letter sent Thursday, which was released publicly by the Premier’s office on Friday.

B.C.’s retreat on drug decriminalization spurs concern about fates of similar plans

Speaking at an unrelated announcement in Winnipeg on Friday, Mr. Trudeau did not directly address Mr. Ford’s requests. Instead, the Prime Minister said his government has been clear that the toxic drug crisis and the opioid epidemic need to be responded to with the best science possible, support for people struggling with addictions and with an emphasis on community safety.

Ms. Chow on Friday called for the Prime Minister and Premier to join the city in a pilot project to connect people to 24/7 treatment programs, harm reduction and supportive housing.

Health Canada says the safer-supply sites can help prevent overdoses, save lives and connect people who use drugs to other health and social services. Safer supply sites can include medical clinics, supportive housing, pharmacies and health centres, as well as supervised consumption sites.

Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, Kieran Moore, has also recommended Ontario decriminalize simple possession of unregulated drugs for personal use and make safer supply accessible to reduce the number of people in the province dying from preventable opioid overdoses each year.

Gillian Kolla, an assistant professor in the faculty of medicine at Memorial University and a public-health researcher looking at responses to the overdose crisis, said federal approval of safe supply is not necessary and doctors and nurses can prescribe controlled substances such as hydromorphone after a careful assessment of treatments to help stabilize the person.

“What is dangerous to me ... is that this sounds like Ford is interfering in the ability of doctors to individually assess and treat patients at high risk of death from the use of the street supply of fentanyl in the ongoing overdose crisis that we’re having in this province,” she said.