British Columbians are deeply concerned about the overdose crisis and want to see improved access to addiction treatment – but, faced with an unprecedented number of drug deaths in the province, they’re also willing to consider more radical options such as the legalization of hard drugs.
Those are some of the findings of a new survey by the Mustel Group, conducted for the InnerChange Foundation, a Vancouver-based non-profit that supports research in mental health and addiction. The survey provides a snapshot of provincial attitudes on substance-use disorder, and which initiatives people are willing to support amid the province’s worst overdose crisis on record. It’s expected that more than 800 people will have died of illicit drug overdoses by year’s end; health and justice officials, politicians and activists have called for a broad range of remedies from increasing the number of treatment beds to legalization.