Sask. government announces stiff new measures to combat fentanyl, meth

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After nearly 2,000 people in Saskatchewan died from drug overdoses over the past five years, the province is introducing significant new penalties for drug trafficking and more power for police officers.

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These measures include fines of up to $1 million for drug trafficking, seizing property used for or purchased with the proceeds of drug sales, reclassifying drug use and “other disruptive activities” in semi-public spaces as trespassing, treating drug-related items as street weapons that police can seize without charges, canceling provincial licenses for people convicted of drug-related crimes, and waiving some court-imposed fines for people if they choose to attend drug treatment programs.

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“Tragically, in recent years, we have seen a rise in fentanyl and methamphetamine overdoses and deaths,” said Saskatchewan Minister of Justice and Attorney General Tim McLeod. “It’s important that we recognize these substances for what they are — they are lethal poisons that need to be eradicated from our communities.”

Though this announcement comes only weeks after the United States threatened to impose tariffs on Canadian goods, with the White House’s justification based on “the extraordinary threat (to the United States) posed by illegal aliens and drugs, including deadly fentanyl,” McLeod says the timing of the plan is mostly coincidental.

“If this helps the conversations around the tariffs, that’s a benefit to be sure; but our primary focus as the Government of Saskatchewan is on the health and well-being of our people,” he said.

Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Mark Arcand welcomed the announcement with “full support” for getting drugs off the streets in Saskatchewan.

“When somebody gets killed from this stuff, in my opinion, the penalty is not harsh enough because they go do their sentence, and then they come back out and do the same darn thing again,” he said.

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While some of the specifics are still being ironed out, Saskatoon police chief Cameron McBride says he is broadly optimistic.

“I am very encouraged by some of this,” he said. “I believe, in my heart of hearts, it will make a significant difference.”

While Saskatoon mayor Cynthia Block says she is glad to see the government “taking this step forward to try to take drugs off the streets,” she wants to see more measures to address the root causes of addictions.

“There are very few of us in the province who don’t know somebody that has been impacted by illegal drugs,” she said. “I have a friend whose son died of a fentanyl overdose the first time he tried drugs; I have a family member who has been impacted by drugs …

“But the new Statistics Canada data is very clear: The reason that people are homeless in our city is because they can’t afford a home. They have also been able to glean that people who are addicted very often fell into homelessness because they couldn’t afford a home and then became addicted — not the opposite way around. 

“So the evidence, to me, is very clear. Is it important that we take this move right now to get these drugs off the streets? Absolutely. But if we can’t figure out how to get people safely housed, I don’t think we’re going to see change.”

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