Hello, everyone.

First of all, thank you for inviting me to appear before you. I am not used to having this kind of platform. I have been working on the front lines for about 20 years and I was a street worker for 12 years, working every day with people experiencing the kinds of problems we are talking about today. I am not used to making this kind of presentation and I am a bit nervous, but I will do my best.

I was invited here today because I conducted research for a year and a half. I began the research at the end of 2021 and finished it in 2023. During that research, I was on the front lines documenting the real-life experiences of people who use drugs in an effort to highlight the human element behind this problem. People often refer to data and facts, but the human element often seems to be overlooked. This whole problem is extremely complex. I wanted to highlight that fact. Since I had the opportunity to work with people in order to bring attention to this problem, I had access to their personal histories and was able to develop trusting relationships with them.

In the studies that are conducted, it really seems to me that we will never get the real numbers as long as there are so many taboos in this area. These taboos and stigmatization are major factors that obscure the real things that we see, do not see, or experience at the same time.

I have forwarded my study findings to the clerk so you can review them. I say a study and research, but it was really very simple. I did my research in the community, not with a university.

What led me to conduct my study? I started my study by reaching out to people on the front line. I took part in 29 directed discussions, not really interviews, with people who use drugs. I met all kinds of people, both homeless people and ordinary people who use drugs. I talked to a municipal councillor, to single-parent families and to people working in the mines. People from all walks of life use drugs. Someone said something that struck me, and that was how I began my study. That person said they did not want to become a statistic, the number you become if you die of an overdose. That was really the comment that sparked my study.

What were the findings of my study? I met directly with 29 individuals. I spoke with 14 workers from 11 different services in Abitibi—Témiscamingue, the region I am from. I also reached more than a hundred people through various surveys. What this study shows is the real complexity of the problem.

I would like to ask you to consider the problem from another point of view. Drug use can be seen as problematic in itself. In many cases, however, we see a lot of people who use those drugs to deal with another problem. When I say the complexity of the problem, I mean we have to look at the problem as a whole. Rather than focusing on the fact that a drug causes a specific problem, we have to ask and try to understand why people use those drugs. They are the ones who could tell us why they use them. We cannot generalize because every person has their own reason for using them.

The problem has to be addressed proactively. In my opinion, there are two aspects: prevention, which people talk about a lot, and harm reduction. They have to be considered together because they do not have the same objective. That said, the vision and goals are ultimately the same, but we need to work on both aspects at the same time.