If Mayor Tory is willing to “consider anything” to stem overdose emergency he must call for an end to marijuana dispensary raids because the science-based evidence is in: cannabis can save lives
Toronto’s Mayor John Tory recently wrote a passionate column for the Toronto Sun on the opioid overdose crisis. It was in response to a callous piece by Sun columnist Sue-Ann Levy calling for a dose of “tough love” instead of naloxone for people who are overdosing.
Mayor Tory condemned the war-on-drugs mentality in dealing with people who are addicted to opioids. He called for compassion and offered “that the City of Toronto is doing everything it can to help prevent those tragedies.”
He also committed “to consider anything that those people who know more than I do about this are willing to think are [sic] reasonable and is going to save lives.”
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In 2015, the Canadian Journal of Public Health published an editorial by the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS urging doctors to prescribe cannabis instead of opioids to treat pain. The authors lamented that doctors have not been quick to accept or even consider medical marijuana.
Despite outdated fears and reservations about cannabis, the science-based evidence is in: cannabis can save lives.
Medical marijuana patients and dispensary operators know this first-hand: dispensaries have been engaging in peaceful civil disobedience for years to serve a desperate population of people in pain. It’s criminal that cannabis was not promoted earlier as an alternative.
If Mayor Tory is willing to “consider anything,” he must be brave and call for an end to dispensary raids and encourage the City to accommodate and regulate marijuana shops as a safer choice than opioids for pain relief and those battling addiction.