Northern BC MLA Mike Morris is taking the first shot over a recent suggestion from the province’s Representative of Children and Youth.
On Friday, Dr. Jennifer Charlesworth called for supervised drug sites for teenagers, similar to what we see with adults who are addicted to opioids and other drugs.
Morris believes this is a terrible suggestion by the current government.
“It’s akin to allowing the parents of these children to free and unfettered access to alcohol in the house. They (the NDP) have an obligation to look after our children and keep them safe.”
“A lot of these substances are dangerous, opioids and even marijuana use amongst children has proof that it can be detrimental to their mental health so to condone the use of these drugs instead of trying to figure out some way to keep people off of them right from the beginning. I think is the wrong direction to go and that’s exactly what’s happening when we have these safe injection sites for children.”
Morris adds the possibility of some youth getting the same access to get high like those addicted to opioids and other drugs is a lose-lose situation.
“It’s a scary thought. We probably stand the best chance of rehabilitating youth if we get to them when their kids before they become adults and that’s where the effort should be made, not into supervising and allowing them to use these drugs and thinking it’s OK to use them.”
He believes the problem would be addressed if the NDP considered the BC Liberals private members bill they put forward on the Safe Care Act, a document that has fallen on deaf ears from the NDP.
“We had put a lot of work into it when we were still in government, brought it forward at that particular time and so far, it’s not there.”
“It would give the parents along with government and health care providers to put kids in a facility for a number of days to try and get them over the hump I guess when it comes to drug use.”
However, Charlesworth says the only way to stop youth from overdosing is to have supervised areas where teens can get high.