Economic Drain

A discussion with Donald MacPherson, creator of Vancouver’s Four Pillar Drug Strategy to reduce drug related harm in the city. The approach is a coordinated, comprehensive approach that balances public order and public health in order to create a safer, healthier community. (Also see previous post)

Given Donald’s extensive experience with the issue of drug use, policy, and addressing addiction, speaking with him regarding our ideas was an excellent opportunity to receive valuable input. A really interesting point that Donald made was that cities have quite a unique opportunity to inform and shape drug policy from higher levels of government. Cities are experiencing the issue of addiction/drug use on a day-to-day level and and observing the consequences of use that federal policy makers do not observe. Unfortunately, drug policy development often does not include representation from municipal levels of government, which is a tragedy as they have much to offer.

Given this, change in opinion and the movement to reform drug policy must really come from cities and lower levels of government. Drug policy transformation must follow from changes in policy at the Federal level, which starts by transforming the way we look at drugs and addiction. Part of the resistance to abandoning prohibition is the stigma associated with users- whereby any policy that is compassionate is just feeding their addiction. According to Donald, society must first come out of denial about the extent of drug use in our city. Collaboration between all areas of society and levels of government is needed for policy transformation to become a reality, and its critical that users are included in policy development.

Speaking directly about the business community, the perspective of people in business toward drugs and addiction must change. Business people need to understand the economic and social costs associated with prohibition to understand that perhaps an alternative approach will be better socially and economically for all of society. Dialogue is needed between all facets of society for this to be realized. 

When I asked Donald what he felt was critical to include in an event such as the one we are proposing, he had some interesting suggestions. An inclusive dialogue between all areas of society that must include research people to inform the dialogue with a certain amount of scientific evidence. The dialogue itself should be just that, and not a debate as they tend to become largely ineffective for exploring alternative ideas. Exploration of a variety of perspectives would lead to a greater sharing and creativity overall.