Mayor Neil Ellis of Belleville, Ontario has declared a state of emergency following a string of drug overdoses that saw more than a dozen calls to emergency services in one hour on Tuesday afternoon. It has since been reported that there have been at least two dozen overdoses since that time.
People began dropping like flies along Bridge Street East where Bridge Street United Church is located. The church offers food, shower and laundry outreach services through a program run by the John Howard Society of Belleville, making it a hub for illicit drug use.
Residents and business owners say the issues began approximately five years ago, only after the Justin Trudeau Liberals implemented the Canadian Drugs And Substances Strategy (CDSS) in 2017. It is a program intended to “save lives and minimize substance use-related harms” for not only the “people who use drugs and alcohol” but also “their families and communities.”
Yet in a 2023 evaluation update report, the strategy failed to accomplish anything, had no tangible benefit and instead “the rates of substance use and related harm continue to rise.”
Provincial data shows that this strategy has only worked to double the opioid and stimulant-related deaths.
In Ontario, there were 1,324 opioid and stimulant-related deaths for the first half of 2023, from January to June.
That was up from 867 deaths in 2016, a year before the CDSS came into effect – a number that nearly doubled to 1,265 in the year following the implementation of this purported harm reduction strategy.
Naturally, the feds re-committed to the strategy in December of 2023 and increased the funding to a grand total of $1 billion of squandered taxpayer funds.
Something Trudeau now says is part of his toolbox.
Trudeau says the overdoses in Belleville, Ont. are a “phenomenon” linked to “toxic drug supply”
Says he has tools at the federal level, which is likely the failed billion-dollar Canadian Drug and Substances Strategy
Aren’t all drugs inherently toxic? https://t.co/10R46kQiZP pic.twitter.com/MkSQF38UzC
— Tamara Ugolini 🇨🇦 (@TamaraUgo) February 9, 2024
Other residents expressed shock over the drug use problem. “I’ve been here for a year,” said one, “and I’ve never seen it like this.”
Another lifelong Belleville resident wonders what the state of emergency will do. “What is it going to help at the end of the day? They’re not doing anything other than hauling them away in stretchers and leaving them on the side of the road,” he said.
When asked about the solution he said that they “definitely need treatment,” while others say there should be a balance between treatment and more government-regulated drugs.
Another resident calls on the federal government to restore law and order through the criminal code.
“When drug dealers are arrested and then released and arrested and released, that’s the problem. We need to enforce the laws. We need new laws – they’ve been slackened over the last few years, I think under the current federal government, and they need to be toughened and there needs to be like some kind of a three strikes you’re out rule.”
Officials say that this particular string could be tied to a certain elephant tranquillizer that has made its way into the drug supply. It’s an increasingly powerful drug called xylazine. And, the more powerful the street drug, the more it’s sought after by those seeking their next fix.
