The Ottawa Integrated Drugs and Addictions Strategy Initiative

In 2005, former Mayor Bob Chiarelli engaged a comprehensive Community Network to develop a ‘made in Ottawa’ Integrated Drugs and Addictions Strategy based on four key areas: prevention, treatment, harm reduction and enforcement. The Community Network is comprised of over 50 community leaders representing areas such as mental health, parent and youth groups, school boards, ethno-cultural groups, local hospitals, business community, homelessness and affordable housing sector, law enforcement, legal system, treatment centres and community resource centres. The Community Network is co-chaired by community members Alana Kainz and George Langill.

Ottawa has programs and services that span these four areas. However, there is lack of an overall framework that ensures an integrated approach and a balanced ongoing strategy to respond to drug and addiction issues in Ottawa.

The goal of the Ottawa Integrated Drugs and Addictions Strategy is to ensure that Ottawa residents live in a community, increasingly free of the harms associated with problematic substance use.