It's a bit of a dirty topic, but more than ever the need to talk about drugs is presenting itself.
Since the days of alcohol prohibition and through the years of similar policies governing drug use, there have always been those who disobey and, ultimately, those who profit.
The laws that fill our prisons with the addicted also force drug users into back alleys away from the prying eyes of the public. It pushes them away from helpful services that could make a difference in their lives and society as a whole.
Surrounding this hidden culture of abuse - and it's everywhere - is the shadowy clandestine market of drugs where astronomical profits are made and often turned towards even darker enterprises.
The discovery of the highly toxic and obscure chemical PMMA in ecstasy tablets making their way around B.C. and Alberta has been both shocking and horrific for the authorities and organizations seeking to counter this country's drug problem.
It was just as painful for the families of its victims, like that of the 16-year-old Langley teen who became the fourth ecstasy victim of 2012 last weekend.
His death, and the death of several others in the province over the past year, was the result of a criminal decision to lace the drug with a highly toxic substance in order to turn a higher profit.
While a forensic chemical analyst from Health Canada told me this week that his lab's discovery of PMMA in an ecstasy sample was the first time they've seen it in 10 years of analysis, it's a story that remains the same.
Dirty drugs breed corruption and line the pockets of criminals, while addicts and experimenting youths fork over their dollars in exchange for a dose of poison.
There is no easy solution to the problem, but slowly our society seems to be coming to terms with its problem with drugs.
In November a coalition of former Vancouver mayors, and current mayor Gregor Robertson, called for legalization of marijuana. While the dangers of marijuana use have been shown to be slim to none, apart from the age-old gateway drug arguments, the plant still serves to fund criminal activities of all kinds.
Opening its doors in 2003, the Insite supervised injection site in Vancouver's Downtown East Side has endured legal struggles since its inception to continue providing its life-saving services.
By allowing the addicted to have a safe, clean, supervised environment to take their drugs, the clinic prevents fatal overdoses and provides a trusting avenue to treatment options, counselling and, in some cases, recovery.
But it has taken a change in mentality, and a trip to the Supreme Court of Canada, for society to even begin to see the advantages of approaching drug users with a helping hand in lieu of a fist.
As the recent ecstasy deaths can surely attest, much more needs to be done.
While the solutions won't be easy and will likely require a continuing evolution of the way we think about drugs and drug culture, one thing remains certain.
We can continue to let the problem fester in back alleyways and become continually corrupted by merciless criminal forces, or Canada itself can admit that it has a drug problem and begin to own its consequences.
Is it time to hold a national intervention?
