Toronto’s Drug Policy Paradox: Harm Reduction Sites versus Drug Arrests in Toronto Neighborhoods (1992-2020)

• In Event: Communities, Drugs, and Crime

Abstract

Discourse around drug policy presents a stark contrast between criminalization and harm reduction
models, sparking debates on the state’s role in regulation versus citizen protection. Canada serves
as an ideal context for examining the interplay between drug policy models due to its global
recognition as a leader in harm reduction alongside persistent adherence to stringent
criminalization measures. Few scholars have researched this paradox directly. Using 29 years of
Toronto Police Service drug sales and possession arrest data from 1992 to 2020, this study analyzes
the longitudinal and spatial relationship between harm reduction service provision and police
enforcement of drug sales and possession across the city of Toronto. I ask: What is the relationship
between the presence of harm reduction centres in a neighborhood and drug sales and possession
arrests? Are law enforcement officers becoming an obstacle to harm reduction access? Using
spatial techniques and models, I find that proximity to a needle exchange clinic and/or supervised
injection site significantly influences the likelihood of drug sales and possession arrests in a
neighborhood. This demonstrates the discrepancy between the widely held ‘harm reduction model’
narrative in Toronto and the reality of policing practices surrounding harm reduction services.

Author

• Taylor Domingos, Northwestern University