Alberta's top court dismisses challenge of ID requirement at drug-use sites
CTV
Alberta's top court has dismissed an appeal from harm reduction advocates who wanted to stop a provincial policy that requires people who want to use a supervised drug-injection site to provide their health-card number to get inside.
Alberta's top court has dismissed an appeal from harm reduction advocates who wanted to stop a provincial policy that requires people who want to use a supervised drug-injection site to provide their health-card number to get inside.
The rule came into force Monday.
The Alberta Court of Appeal heard the emergency request on Friday after a judge denied an application earlier this month that would have immediately suspended the requirement.
The Appeal Court said in its decision that the chambers judge, Justice Paul Belzil, accepted that there is “an opioid epidemic in Alberta,” but added that the solutions are not obvious.
“Public health authorities in Alberta are struggling to respond to this epidemic, as are public health authorities in every other province or territory in Canada,” the three Appeal Court judges wrote in their decision.
“The challenged regulation is part of an overall strategy to respond to the opioid overdose epidemic within the broader framework of the health-care system.”
Moms Stop the Harm and the Lethbridge Overdose Prevention Society, the two non-profit societies that were challenging the Alberta government, argued that the requirement to provide a health-care number could increase barriers to the sites and increase the risk of overdoses.
