Commentary Facing a surge in opioid overdose deaths he calls an “absolute catastrophe,” Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart is hoping for help by asking Ottawa to decriminalize possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. Some police want a safe supply of drugs free of the deadly fentanyl, which comes from China but also domestic sources. Others say that legalized safe sources might ease matters in the short term, but that the real solution is to get addicts off drugs completely. “We have to start taking some action toward a recovery-oriented system,” said Dr. Carson McPherson, managing director of Cedars at Cobble Hill, a B.C. drug addiction treatment facility. He told Global News that supplying drugs is “playing into what’s ultimately a sick-care system and not a health-care system.” Between January 2016 and June 2020, there were 17,602 apparent opioid toxicity deaths in Canada, according to federal government data. Fatal overdoses and other …