Despite all the shouting, the opioid crisis continues to defy simple answers

Health Minister Mark Holland stood and suggested partisanship should be put aside in the face of an epidemic of opioid addiction and overdose deaths.

As the Conservatives have pointed out, Dwayne McDonald, the deputy commissioner of the RCMP, did disagree with a Bloc Quebecois MP's suggestion that the positives of decriminalization outnumbered the negatives.

On the question of safer supply, Wilson acknowledged that the diversion of legally prescribed drugs into the illicit market was a source of concern — though not a particularly new phenomenon.

That province has not moved to decriminalize drug possession and it has been less enthusiastic about safer supply — the "Alberta model" is said to put more emphasis on treatment and recovery.

Moms Stop the Harm advocates and supporters march from Centennial Square to the Ministry of Health building in Victoria, B.C., past photos of loved ones lost to the opioid crisis, on Thursday, April 14, 2022.

In the short term, said Richardson, the goal of decriminalization is simply to reduce the number of interactions with police and the criminal justice system — and in that respect, it seems to be working.