CHARBONNEAU – The ‘Alberta Model’ for drug treatment is yet to be built
Danielle Smith. (Image: Facebook)
ALBERTA PREMIER Danielle Smith has been quoting statistics that show that the “Alberta Model” works in reducing drug-related deaths.
But how can the model work when it’s still under construction? It doesn’t exist. You can’t claim results of a program that is just in the planning stages.
Smith’s model is based on the construction of five recovery centres to be built around the province. The first one has been completed in Red Deer and Lethbridge is next.
It’s not a model. It’s a plan based on the “Portugal Model” which has been up and running since 2001. Portugal has reduced drug-related deaths more than any other European country.
The success of the “Portugal Model” involves bringing users before what’s called a “dissuasion commission.”
The dissuasion panel gives a stern warning, and if it’s the first time they are free to go. Those at a higher risk are referred to counselling or specialized treatment services.
The panel makes it clear to high risk offenders that treatment is voluntary, but if an individual refuses to go for treatment they can be subject to other administrative sanctions such as community service or suspension of their driver’s licence.
Alberta’s plan to emulate Portugal involves the integration of drug treatment into the public health framework – a good idea. But Alberta’s intention to use involuntary treatment is a problem. Grabbing addicts from the street and forcing them into compulsory care would only alienate users and drive them back into the drug culture upon release.
You can’t force addicts into treatment. They must be convinced of any benefits.
What Smith conveniently fails to mention is that Portugal also decriminalized drugs, the very thing she criticises B.C. for doing. Decriminalization is part of what draws drug users into programs. Users already feel alienated enough; they feel further alienated by being regarded as criminals.
Smith’s plan won’t work without decriminalization, according to Steve Rolles, senior policy analyst at the U.K.-based Transform Drug Policy Foundation. He has studied the Portugal model.
“You can’t have an effective public health response to drugs whilst you’re criminalizing the people you’re trying to help,” says Rolles.
As evidence of the efficacy of a model yet to be built, Smith used Alberta statistics from 2022 which showed overdose deaths fell by 12 per cent, compared with just 1.5 per cent in B.C.
But if overdose deaths in Alberta didn’t fall by 12 per cent as a result of the “Alberta Model,” then what was the cause?
It turns out that overdose deaths generally fell across the country the year after the pandemic. During the pandemic, drug deaths increased due to isolation and reduced access to health care. Once the pandemic was over, deaths fell relative to pandemic years.
If Smith weren’t so eager to bash B.C. she would have quoted recent Alberta statistics from 2023. They show that April was the deadliest month on record for opioid overdoses in Alberta, with 179 people dying of drug poisoning. They show that drug-related deaths are up 6.4 per cent through the first four months of 2023 versus the same period last year.
What does work is decriminalization of drugs and safe supply of drugs to draw addicts into the health care system for treatment.
David Charbonneau is a retired TRU electronics instructor who hosts a blog at http://www.eyeviewkamloops.wordpress.com.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
I was once told by a professor that a “little bit of knowledge can be dangerous”, it’s a saying loosely based upon a poem by Alexander Pope. I think it’s relevant to this discussion as it’s far too early to determine if either “model” is better than the other at this time. Both need many years of service before concrete results will tell definitively if one is superior than the other. I have my suspicions that one is poorly designed but I am a laymen in these matters. I trust time and results will tell the story and by no means am I persuaded by claims of politicians as too which is the better “model”.
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Thanks for this writing DC. Curious to know, since a studious fellow from the UK was mentioned, how is the drugs situation in the UK?
And also, how does BC measure up with recovery measures?
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Enabling drug use through decriminalization and so-called safe supply is the low easy road to even more problems. Take a look around. It doesn’t work. Supplying addicts with drugs is not harm reduction, it is just harm. Getting people off drugs and back to wellness must be the objective, BC’s current approach does nothing in that regard. Pointing the finger of derision at Alberta as they attempt to do something about drug addiction and praising BC while we ignore and indeed perpetuate the problem, mostly because you like David Eby and dislike Danielle Smith is not a valid comparison. What Smith and Alberta are doing takes guts, something sadly lacking in our current provincial government. David Eby needs to personally wear a lot of BC’s issues through his previous work with Pivot Legal and the horror show that the DTES became through hand-cuffing the police, and how that spread throughout the province.
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