Editor:
Re: Province gives Surrey $175K for… response to overdose crisis, March 15 peacearchnews.com
On first glance, this new funding would appear to be a positive development, as more resources are certainly needed to address the overdose crisis and provide community supports.
However, we have to be careful this project is not really about new ways of surveillance and criminalization of drug users in Surrey. The announcement makes clear that “public safety agencies” will be part of the proposed “co-ordinated system,” so there is cause for concern.
Criminalization has been a main cause of the current crisis, both in spurring the turn to fentanyl and in driving drug users into the shadows of stigma where they die alone. Use of the term “at-risk opioid users” raises a red flag since we know in this crisis that anyone could be at risk and risk factors are social – about isolation for example – rather than strictly personal.
The emphasis on “high-risk individuals” suggests perhaps that what they really mean are “known to police,” or people who are identified because of other factors, like homelessness.
The Surrey Outreach Team to address homelessness, for example, is already primarily about policing and police resources.
The article references the Surrey Mobilization and Resilience Table (SMART) program, and it is telling that it is “spearheaded by the Surrey RCMP,” per the RCMP website. The SMART site even makes clear that when they say “high risk” they really mean “a high risk of criminality.”
SMART lists its first goal as “reduc(ing) incidents of crime and social disorder.” This is not about the care and support of drug users and is explicitly a mandate for criminalization.
The language used in the announcement suggests that predetermined needs of government will take precedence over the needs of drug users.
As concerned residents, we must be sure that this new program is about health and well-being, not punishment.
The current opioid crisis has shown us clearly that criminalization kills.
Jeff Shantz, Surrey
