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As the city of Toronto prepares to implement an opioid overdose crackdown, Dr. David McKeown, Vice-Chair of the Toronto Public Health (TPH) board, asks how will these enforcement efforts be enforced?
FOX’s Errol Labounty has more from Toronto, Ontario:
The city of Toronto is calling for public and private organizations to report overdoses to them to report.
And, Toronto’s City Council will be implementing a new policy, next week, that if officials notice someone overdose, the potential to arrest them is heightened.
The Toronto public health health board says their main priority is to get people into detox or treatment centers that can help address the opioid crisis.
Mayor John Tory says they need every tool in the tool box:
(Tory) “We need to be firm with the people that we arrest for these crimes and we need to be firm with our support services. And I think that’s what this policy is doing.”
This is just a first step and there are a lot of unanswered questions as to what the intentions are here.
Ontario Public Health says more than a thousand people died in Canada in 2016 of an opioid overdose. But the city of Toronto only wants to act against those who are overdosing, not those who are selling drugs.
With FOX on Love, I’m Errol Labounty.
Follow Errol Labounty on Twitter: @ErrolLabounty