Moms Stop the Harm present to community safety standing policy committee

Moms Stop the Harm is a national advocacy group to support those struggling with addiction, and to support families who have lost a loved one to an overdose. The group advocates for harm reduction sites like the supervised consumption site that was once in Lethbridge, but later closed once the province pulled funding for the site.

Lethbridge representative, Lori Hatfield, presented to Lethbridge City Council’s Community Safety Standing Policy Committee on behalf of the group. She says their goal is to have the overdose crisis declared a national public emergency, and to decriminalize certain drug possession. 

“It would take away this revolving door that we have…people having drugs on them, being arrested, being put into jail,” says Hatfield “it’s just a small amount for personal use that they have on them. They get released from jail, and it just happens over and over again. We are getting nowhere with this law, and these policies”.

The group’s resolution to the committee also asks municipalities to work with provinces to develop a comprehensive pan-Canadian plan for ending the overdose crisis.