Alberta Drug Harm Reduction

"There are people out here actively protesting against recovery . . ."

"That's just the craziest thing I've ever heard, and it just shows you how drug policy has been radicalized in North America."

Tom Wolf, drug recovery advocate, San Francisco based 

"We're saying that you can recover and there is a better life for you that you deserve and that we will be there for you."

"[We are providing increased funding for] harm reduction programs [in tandem with new treatment beds]."

"[Alberta is] indisputably [leading the country in addiction recovery]."

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith

"We support meeting people where they are at regarding their relationship with drugs, understanding that recovery can include resuming use after a period of abstinence."

Euan Thomson, safe supply activist, Calgary

"We are not against recovery ... But recovery can't be without accountability."

"We have to know what our dollars are buying and what we are getting for it."

"[Harm reduction likely would have saved my son's life]."

Petra Schulz, mother of man who died of an overdose during a relapse 

San Francisco-based recovery advocate Tom Wolf is pictured in this screenshot from a video documenting a protest outside the Alberta Recovery Conference. Wolf called it the "craziest thing he had ever seen." Photo by Twitter/Tom Wolf

A treatment-based alternative to 'safe supply' policies was under discussion at an addictions conference taking place in Alberta. Protesters gathered to accuse the conference of a far-rigjt, colonialist perspective promoting an enterprise geared to a solution to a dire problem, that the protesters insisted would end up killing people. Conference organizers and attendees were in disbelief that their program, meant to give drug addicts hope for a better future was being condemned in favour of 'safe supply'.

One conference participant posted a video to social media stating his disbelief. Tom Wolf has credited a drug-related jail sentence with giving him the impetus to take himself away from a life of homelessness and drug addiction, and to turn  his attention and energies instead to becoming a drug recovery advocate.

A mere dozen people gathered outside the Calgary Hyatt Regency Centre during the conference to protest, holding up signs such as "they talk we die", or "nice people take drugs" and another banner reading "support harm reduction". Small the gathering of protesters may have been but they were vociferously opposed to the drug recovery scheme being promoted and discussed at the conference.

Oregon county commissioner Ben West posted: "These people are actually protesting recovery models!" The conference represents a gathering of roughly 1,300 individuals convened at the Alberta Recovery Conference to discuss the Alberta Model, a treatment-based approach, with an end goal of assisting addicts to gain "a life free of illicit drugs".

This approach stands in sharp contrast to the addiction and overdose policy pursued throughout much of Canada, in particular in Alberta's next-door neighbour, British Columbia, where policy-makers have committed to harm reduction strategies with an emphasis on providing venues for safe supply and safe consumption in prevention of drug overdoses.

Speaking at the conference, the premier of Alberta lauded her province's support for the recovery values the conference was supporting. Alberta experienced a thousand fatalities from drug poisoning in 2022. Yet there has been a downward trend in drug-related deaths in the province. Contrasting with the sky-high deaths resulting from drug use in British Columbia. Alberta drug-related deaths in November had plunged a whopping 47 percent in comparison to a record high of the previous year.

 

The protest group considered themselves rallying for "Albertans who use drugs and their allies", calling for increased funding on safe consumption sites and at the same time to tighten oversight on "for profit" treatment centres. "Harm reduction and recovery go together, because dead people don't recover", one of their pamphlets read.

 

Conference participant Keith Humphreys posted a slide boasting that there was a "60 percent increase" in Alberta harm reduction spending, along with a "massive increase in Naloxone distribution". The conference itself saw mentions of harm reduction although the strategy was cited as a bridge toward detoxification and ultimately, abstinence.

Protesters rally outside the Hyatt Regency Hotel where the sixth annual Recovery Capital Conference was taking place on Tuesday, February 21, 2023. Protesters were calling for changes to addictions recovery programs in the province. Gavin Young/Postmedia