The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, July 10, edition that Toronto's chief medical officer is calling for the decriminalization -- and potential legalization -- of all drugs for personal use as a way to curb rising opioid-related deaths and overdoses. The Globe's guest columnist Jack Hauen writes that in a report released Monday, Medical Officer of Health Eileen de Villa recommended the federal government scale up harm-prevention strategies, including the removal of legal penalties for small amounts of drugs, and convene a task force to look at the possibility of regulating all drugs, similar to alcohol. Dr. de Villa made those recommendations to the Toronto Board of Health, asking it to put pressure on the provincial and federal governments. "Our belief, based on the evidence, is that the criminalization of people who take drugs actually is contributing to this opioid-overdose emergency in our city, because it forces people into unsafe drug practices and actually presents a barrier to those who might be interested in seeking help for addressing opioid-use disorders," she said. Drug problems should be treated as public-health issues, not criminal ones, she said. The report comes as cities across Canada rush to implement harm-reduction strategies to curb the spiking death toll from the opioid crisis.