Sarnia-Lambton's MP doesn't agree with a Liberal caucus proposal to decriminalize illicit drug use and simple possession.
The push for decriminalizing all drug use comes in the midst of a nation-wide opioid crisis, which, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada, killed over 4,000 Canadians in 2017.
Marilyn Gladu, who's also the shadow minister of health, says Sarnia-Lambton has taken steps to fight the crisis by introducing temporary withdrawal management beds at Bluewater Health and plans for a permanent withdrawal management site are on the horizon.
She says the focus on preventative measures should continue.
"Overprescription of opioid drugs is one of the problems and the other problem is the illegal opioids that are coming in from China and offshore," Gladu says. "We need to do a better job of preventing them from getting here and we need to put in place treatments to get people off of drugs."
The Liberal caucus proposal mimics a program introduced in 2001 in Portugal, which has seen a reduction in overdose deaths, a decrease in illicit drug use and a lower social cost of drug abuse.
Gladu says that program wouldn't have the same success here in Canada.
"The key difference is that Portugal put in place a treatment program before they decriminalized, so they had the capacity to help people get off drugs. We don't have that here," she says. "If we decriminalized you'd see an increase in use, that's typical, but we don't have any solution or place to send people to actually get them off drugs."
While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has never publicly supported decriminalization, Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is in favour of the idea.