Blocking Harm Reduction: “We Can’t Enable Bad Behaviour”

You can’t punish people into healing. You can’t shame someone into recovery. You can’t erase pain by hiding the people who carry it.

Deep Dive #5: Blocking Harm Reduction & Mental Health Supports

Across Canada, harm reduction and mental health programs are under attack. Policies that save lives, like safe supply, supervised consumption sites, and crisis mental health supports, are being rolled back, defunded, or blocked altogether.

The people pushing these bans say they’re acting out of concern.

But behind the soundbites, the truth is this: These bans are not about safety. They’re about controlling who is seen as worthy of care, and who is not.

What’s being said?

“These programs make things worse.”

“They don’t solve the real problem.”

“We need law and order, not enabling.”

“We don’t want these services near our homes or schools.”

“People need treatment, not handouts.”

“If we make it easier to use, more people will die.”

“This just attracts addicts and crime.”

“People should pull themselves together.”

What’s actually happening?

When harm reduction and mental health supports are removed:

• Overdose deaths increase dramatically

• More people use alone, in unsafe spaces

• Mental health crises escalate into incarceration or death

• Families are left with no options to support their loved ones

• The burden falls hardest on racialized, low-income, disabled, and unhoused communities

Harm reduction doesn’t “enable” people. It keeps them alive long enough to choose a different path, if and when they’re ready.

Why can’t people just “take responsibility” or “get clean”?

Because addiction and mental illness are health issues, not moral failures.

But we live in a culture, especially among white, conservative, middle-class communities, where suffering is seen as a consequence of bad choices, and help must be earned through compliance.

We’re taught that:

• If you’re “good,” you get care.

• If you’re “bad,” you get punished.

• And if you’re suffering? Well, maybe you deserved it.

This worldview doesn't leave room for trauma, poverty, disability, colonization, or systemic oppression. So instead of saying: “Let’s build systems of care,” they say: 

“People need to face consequences.”

“We tried helping, but it didn’t work.”

“They made their choices.”

That’s not justice. That’s abandonment.

Who’s pushing this and why?

Conservative politicians and “law and order” groups push anti-harm reduction policies because:

• It appeals to fear and frustration

• It’s easier (and cheaper) than investing in real care

• It scapegoats people struggling with addiction and mental illness

• It reinforces a worldview where “clean,” “productive,” and “compliant” people are rewarded, and everyone else is disposable

Who benefits?

• Politicians who want quick wins and angry votes

• Developers and businesses who want to gentrify communities without “undesirable populations”

• Police forces that get more funding instead of accountability

• Institutions that don’t want to face their role in systemic trauma

What’s the danger if it succeeds?

• Overdoses will continue to rise, often in silence

• Mental health crises will be criminalized, not cared for

• More families will bury their children

• More Indigenous people will die at the hands of systems meant to help them

• Public health systems will collapse under preventable strain

• Communities will turn inward, afraid of each other, rather than building connection and support

This doesn’t just hurt the people you fear. It hurts the society we’re all trying to live in.

Who gets hurt?

• People struggling with substance use and mental illness who are dehumanized and left to die

• Their families who are denied resources, support, or hope

• Kids who grow up in communities without care

• Healthcare workers burned out, overwhelmed, and unsupported

• Indigenous communities who are overrepresented in overdose deaths and underrepresented in care

• Racialized and disabled people whose pain is ignored or criminalized

And yes, this hurts the people demanding the bans. Because when your child, your sibling, your partner, or you need care and it’s not there? You’ll realize the systems you fought to dismantle were the ones you needed all along.

Where is this happening in Canada?

• Alberta: The UCP government closed supervised consumption sites and centralized recovery-only approaches, despite record overdose deaths

• Ontario: Funding for mental health services and supervised use sites has been quietly scaled back

• BC: Under pressure from conservative media and opposition parties, restrictions were reintroduced on public drug use, even as toxic supply deaths continued to rise

• Across Canada: Politicians are using the language of “public safety” and “children’s protection” to justify erasing life-saving, evidence-based support

The takeaway?

Harm reduction isn’t about choosing between compassion and safety. It’s about recognizing that the two are inseparable.

You can’t punish people into healing. You can’t shame someone into recovery. You can’t erase pain by hiding the people who carry it. You can only meet people where they are and fight for systems that do the same.

Still unsure?

Ask yourself:

• What would you want for someone you love who’s struggling?

• What if they were too afraid to ask for help because people like you called them a problem?

• What will you say to your child when they ask, “Why didn’t you help?”

You don’t need to agree with every strategy. But if you’re fighting harder for punishment than for healing, you’re not protecting anyone.

Choose care. Choose honesty. Choose a future where no one is disposable.

#HarmReductionSavesLives #MentalHealthMatters #ParentingIsPolitical #PoliticalLiteracy #VoteWithPurpose #MomsAgainstRacism #CdnPoli #CompassionIsNotCrime #PublicHealthNotPunishment #EndTheStigma #StopTheBacklash #HealingNotHate #CareOverControl #DignityNotDespair #SubstanceUseSupport #CommunityCareIsResistance #JusticeIsCare