Chatham-Kent council voted in favour of supporting the Ontario Big City Mayors in their efforts in lobbying for the decriminalization of drug possession for personal use.
Chatham councillor Amy Finn—a retired police officer, made the motion, asking the Ontario mayors group to ask the federal government to decriminalize drug possession.
Finn said decriminalization is something that is needed to deal with the opioid crisis.
“It’s a big problem, and all you have to do is read the police (news) briefs every morning, almost 50 to 75% of them involve a simple possession of an opioid,” Finn says, adding that it takes up a lot of a police officer’s time.
“It’s time that could easily be resolved by helping people get the help they need, rather than putting them in jail, where they are not going to get that help.”
Chatham-Kent’s board of health voted in favour in 2018 to ask the federal government to decriminalize drugs, in an effort to move addiction issues to a health issue from a crime issue.
Like many communities, Chatham-Kent is experiencing an opioid crisis, as it’s estimated that the municipality had 15 opioid toxicity deaths in 2020, nearly triple from the previous year.
