MONTREAL - The director of Montreal's public health department is welcoming a recent report by Toronto's board of health pushing the federal government to decriminalize all drugs.
Mylene Drouin says she's in favour of which calls for a health-oriented drug policy instead of a crime-driven one.
Drouin says in a statement that decriminalization will certainly be on the agenda at provincial and national health meetings as it is one of the measures being considered as part of a response to an unprecedented problem in many Canadian cities.
A Health Canada report last month found that nearly 4,000 Canadians died from an apparent opioid overdose in 2017, including 303 opioid overdose-related deaths in Toronto.
That prompted Toronto's health board urging a federal task force to explore "options for the legal regulation of all drugs in Canada, based on a public health approach."
Health Canada has said the government is not currently looking at decriminalizing or legalizing all drugs.
