I knew I'd get flak on this, possibly because it's a simplistic throwaway response to a complex issue. Maybe I'll expand on it one of these days.

In a nutshell, I agree that throwing casual users in prison isn't useful and cops in Toronto haven't been charging people for years. But we have over 100 harm reduction sites and have had safe supply programs in place since 2020, and yet overdose deaths since spiked 100% between 2019 and 2021, with a slight decline in 2022. 2023 data don't seem to be available but based on the early part of the year it looks similar to 2022.

Part of the spike is likely related to Covid, but more significantly it doesn't look as though straight harm reduction can deal with the fentynal crisis and increasing supply of cheap dangerous drugs.

The Atlantic article I linked is worth a read.