Alberta’s public safety minister is heading a new interagency task force to take action on drug use and homelessness in Edmonton. It aims to create a hybrid justice and health system, a model that could then spread to other cities in Alberta.
“I don’t think you need to walk more than a block to see someone using meth in the open air space,” Edmonton Police Chief Dale McFee said at the announcement of the initiative on Dec. 13. “That’s not acceptable. … So what you see here now is leadership, real leadership to say this is enough.”
The city should have a zero-tolerance policy toward drug use, he said, “not by using the justice system as the hammer, but using a multi-discipline approach.”
Health and Justice
The task force will coordinate police efforts with local and provincial agencies. With $187 million in funding, it will build a hybrid health and police hub as well as therapeutic living spaces for addiction recovery within prisons. It will also expand shelter and detox services.“Open-air drug use cannot be tolerated,” said Mike Ellis, minister of public safety and emergency services. “The police have to be at the center of this,” he said.
“If crimes are being committed, then yes, those people do need to be arrested. Unfortunately, having an addiction doesn’t absolve you from criminal responsibility,” Ellis said. “But we also have a duty to make sure that when you have that addiction, that we’re there for you as a government.”
Ellis served as a police officer in Calgary. He said 20 years ago, his only option was to write someone a ticket or make an arrest. Now, police can help people by directing them into the services they need to keep them out of the justice system long-term.
In the Shelters
Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services Jeremy Nixon spoke of his experience working in shelters. He recalled a man named Andrew who had made the decision to get help for his addiction, but there was no room for him at a detox center. He saw another young man enter the justice system and return to the shelter eight times.“We need to do better for these people, these folks who get involved in the justice system, to make sure we can help them with appropriate transitions and we can help them to be able to escape the streets,” Nixon said.
Other Measures
Task force members responded to media questions about their position on measures used in other regions to address these social problems.Ellis and McFee said the province and Alberta’s police chiefs do not support the decriminalization of drugs. Harm-reduction measures are only one aspect of the holistic approach Alberta is taking, Ellis said. Harm-reduction measures there include evidence-based opioid treatment, he said.
Ellis said the province is considering in which cases people might be forced into addiction services. For example, he said, if you have a person who is overdosing regularly and who is a threat to himself and the community, that may warrant forced treatment.
