The Record: Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council endorses legalizing drugs

The Record – Feb 11, 2022: WATERLOO REGION — The Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council has endorsed legalization of all drugs with strict regulation as the best way to reduce harm to individuals and communities.

All drugs would be treated similarly to marijuana, drugs and alcohol with strict regulation of production, distribution, sales, possession and consumption.

The hope would be to improve lives and reduce harm, including overdose deaths. Last year 155 people in Waterloo Region died of drug poisonings.

“When you decriminalize people’s lives the conversation changes,” said Michael Parkinson, an outreach worker for the prevention council.

“And those pathways that we talk about, you know, addiction treatment or housing or income or relationships with families or friends, they all become so much more possible and they are completely impossible in a more criminalized environment.”

To change the law would require significant political will.

Cambridge Mayor Kathryn McGarry lauded the idea and asked how politicians can best pitch the idea to upper level governments.

“This is still groundbreaking work,” she said. “This is still work that needs to be in front of the leaders that make those decisions.”

Parkinson pointed out that there was success with the legalization of marijuana.

“We know that change is possible … the sky didn’t fall and things didn’t go to hell in a handbasket,” he said.

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