Regional Councillor plans town hall on drug crisis in Region

This June, members of the community will be able to gather virtually for a town hall on the topic of ‘The Drug Poisoning Crisis in Waterloo Region’.

Regional Councillor Rob Deutschmann is holding the event and explained why this topic was chosen.

“Drugs in our community, we’ve seen indications of an increase in overdoses, we’re seeing a rise in our homeless population which has a number of contributing factors, but certainly mental health is one issue, drug addiction is another serious issue,” he said.

27 suspected overdose deaths have been reported by the Region so far this year.

There will be several guest speakers at the event and Deutschmann said talking to people on the front lines has shown how important this issue is.

“I’m not sure what the overall strategy is in our community with respect to drugs,” said Deutschmann. “I just thought it was important in speaking with a number of these people to just engage in some community discussion on this issue.

The town hall is a way to have a conversation and see where the discussion goes. Deutschmann also hopes to do follow-up town halls on this topic and others.

“We’re just trying to have an open-minded conversation about issues in our community and what we can do about it,” he said.

This will be the third town hall that Deutschmann has held. The first two discussed voter turnout and amalgamation.

For more information or to register for the town hall, you can click here.