The “City without overdoses” Coalition is demanding the City of Montreal take action to decriminalize drug possession.
We invite you to use the information below to tell your representative to decriminalize drugs and save lives.
Criminalization makes drug use less safe.
We’re told that drugs themselves are unsafe, but the criminalization of drugs is the major reason for unsafety.
Criminalization can lead suppliers to cut drugs with other substances and makes the potency of drugs hard to predict – two reasons for overdoses. Criminalization can also make it harder for drug users to use safer consumption methods (e.g., using with a friend).
We are facing an overdose crisis.
In the last five years, 2,268 people have lost their lives to overdoses in Quebec, and there’s no end in sight.
Across Canada, at least 15,000 people have died from overdoses over the past four years.
Drug criminalization targets poor and racialized people especially.
The people most likely to be arrested for drug possession are the people most likely to be stopped by police. And we know that Montreal police are four times more likely to stop a Black or Indigenous person than a white person.
Poor people in general are more likely to be arrested for drug possession because, unlike people with more money, they are forced to use drugs in public rather than in their home or at a bar.
Cities have the power to decriminalize.
Cities can effectively decriminalize drug possession within their territory by applying to Health Canada for an exemption to drug possession laws.
Vancouver requested such an exemption and received it in 2022. Toronto applied for an exemption in 2022 and will likely receive it.
Take Action!
Montreal city council passed a motion in 2021 in favour of decriminalizing drug possession – but has not followed the example of Vancouver and Toronto and asked for a federal exemption. We need them to use their powers to decriminalize drug possession and save lives now!
Contact your elected representative by phone or email and tell them you want them to ask the federal government for an exemption to drug possession laws.
First, we invite you to contact your city representative by email and encourage them to ask the federal government for a derogation to laws on the possession of drugs. To do this, chose your borough from the drop-down menu and either (a) click the button to open an email automatically addressed to your representatives or (b) copy the email addresses displayed and use them to write your email.
nathalie.goulet@montreal.ca
jerome.normand@montreal.ca
julie.roy4@montreal.ca
emilie.thuillier@montreal.ca
effie.giannou@montreal.ca
mairesse@montreal.ca
josefina.blanco@montreal.ca
defundthespvm@gmail.com
Second, we invite you to sign a petition that calls on the City of Montreal to use its powers to decriminalize the possession of drugs within its territory.