Canada. Commission of Inquiry into the Non-medical Use of Drugs : The Commission of Inquiry Into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs was established under Order in Council P.C. 1112, 29 May 1969, under Part I of the Inquiries Act (R.S.C., 1952, c.154) and on the recommendation of the Minister of Health and Welfare. The Commission was mandated to inquire into and report upon the factors underlying or relating to the non-medical use of the drugs and substances, with particular reference to: (a) the data and information comprising the present fund of knowledge concerning the non-medical use of sedative, stimulant, tranquillizing, hallucinogenic and other psychotropic drugs or substances; (b) the current state of medical knowledge respecting the effect of the drugs and substances referred to in (a); (c) the motivation underlying the non-medical use referred to in (a); (d) the social, economic, educational and philosophical factors relating to the use for non-medical purposes of the drugs and substances referred to in (a) and in particular, on the extent of the phenomenon, the social factors that have lead to it, the age groups involved, and problems of communication; and (e) the ways or means by which the federal government can act, alone or in its relations with government at other levels, in the reduction of the dimensions of the problems involved in such use. The commissioners were Gerald Le Dain, Chairman; Ian Lachlan Campbell; Heinz E. Lehmann, J. Peter Stein and Marie-Andrée Bertrand. André Lussier, an original member of the Commission, resigned on 25 June 1969 and Marie-Andrée Bertrand was appointed to replace him (Order in Council, P.C. 1961, 10 October 1969). The secretary was James J. Moore. After Moore's resignation, in the fall of 1972, his duties were carried out by Frederick Brown and C. Michael Bryan.
During the 1960s, there was a sudden increase in the availability and use of certain psychotropic (mind-altering) drugs such as: sedatives, including barbituates and "sleeping pills"; tranquillizers, including chlorpromazine; stimulants, including amphetamines or "speed drugs" and cocaine; and psychedelic-hallucingens, including cannibus (marijuana and hashish), LSD, psilocybin and mescaline.
About the same time, the practise of inhaling the fumes of certain solvents, for example, various types of glue, nail polish remover, and cleaning fluid became more prevalent.
As the use of illicit drugs became more widespread, the number of arrests for drug offences, particularly relating to cannibus, rose dramatically. This, in turn, caused a great deal of discussion about law and law enforcement with respect to the non-medical use of drugs.
Up to the 1960s, considerable research had been carried out especially on alcohol, tobacco, and on opiate narcotics (opium and heroin). On the other hand, relatively little was known about the use of LSD and cannibus, and information about the non-medical use of prescription drugs such as tranquillizers and amphetamines was inadequate.
In response to the concern over the use of illicit drugs and the need to obtain more information about some of them, the federal Minister of Health and Welfare, John Munro, announced in the House of Commons, on 1 May 1969, the appointment of a commission of inquiry into the non-medical use of drugs.
In particular, the commission was to examine those psychotropic drugs having sedative, stimulant, tranquillizing or hallaucinogenic properties. According to the Commissioners, their most important task was to determine the motivation for the non-medical use of drugs and to place its occurrence in a suitable social and philosophic context:
"It is necessary to consider not only the effects, extent and causes of such use, but the range of social response and attitudes which such use has elicited from government, other institutions and individuals. For non-medical drug use and the social response to it are interacting and mutually conditioning phenomena." (See Interim Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs, Ottawa: Queen's Printer, 1970; and Order in Council, P.C. 112, 29 May 1969.)
Hearings of the commission were held in all 10 provincial capitals of Canada and in Saint John, Moncton, Sackville, Trois Rivières, Sherbrooke, Lennoxville, Montreal, Sept-Iles, Baie Comeau, Ottawa, Kingston, Sudbury, London, Thunder Bay, Hamilton, Windsor, Saskatoon, Calgary and Vancouver from 16 October 1969 to 20 November 1970 and 19 February 1971. These included informal sessions held at several universities and at coffee houses in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
In addition, private hearings were held with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Addiction Research Foundation, the Canadian Bar Association, the Canadian Medical Association and other associations. The commission also received valuable assistance from a number of organizations and individuals in the field of the non-medical use of drugs, including law enforcement, officials and officials in treatment centres, in Canada, the United States, Great Britain and other countries.
The commission received 507 formal submissions and numerous letters. RG33-101 General Inventory
