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Over the past several years, Canada’s drug crisis has spiraled out of control with no signs of slowing. From January 2020 to June 2021, nearly 10,000 Canadians died from opioid overdoses – fentanyl detected in an overwhelming majority. This is familiar to us in the U.S., but the Trudeau administration’s approach to combating the crisis is usually a few steps ahead when it comes to “harm reduction” approaches – including “Safer Supply,” supervised consumption sites, and decriminalized hard drugs. They offer a preview of what we can expect if we continue on our current trajectory, especially in West Coast cities adhering to harm reduction orthodoxy.

Yesterday, we learned the tragic news that a Vancouver man widely known as a drug legalization and safe supply advocate had died – reportedly of a suspected fentanyl overdose. Jerry Martin garnered international media attention in May when he opened a downtown Vancouver kiosk offering a “safe supply” of illicit street drugs to the public. He was evidently testing a grey area under Canada’s recently relaxed decriminalization laws and aiming to provoke a debate over legalization. His death begs questions about the limitations of Canada’s approach to addiction.

To better understand the debate, we spoke to Adam Zivo, a columnist for the National Post based in Toronto and Ukraine. In a recent series of deeply reported articles, he blew the lid off Canada’s Safer Supply program – uncovering how weak, faulty data is used to prop up an ideologically driven program. It is another astonishing example of how “the science,” including experimental and novel treatments, can be politicized and enforced through relentless propaganda and the stifling of dissent.

Strong Words takes an unpretentious look at books