In the Letters section of today’s Vancouver Sun, readers will find me disputing the notion that recent drops in overdose deaths can be attributed to the provincial government’s rejection of harm reduction policies:

Downward trend in overdose deaths began in 2024

Re: Vaughn Palmer: Dropping opioid death toll hints B.C. NDP retreat on harm reduction may be working

Vaughn Palmer attributes the decline in overdose deaths in B.C. to the abandonment of decriminalization and safer supply efforts. Yet the downward trend began in 2024, long before most of these policy changes came into effect. The same decrease has been visible elsewhere in Canada too, as well as in the U.S.

To credit our provincial government’s decision to backtrack on life-saving harm reduction strategies is overly simplistic.

David Taub Bancroft, Vancouver