B.C. expanding access to safer drug supply

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – After thousands of deaths due to toxic drug supply in B.C. in recent years, users will soon have better access to a safer supply.

On Thursday, the province announced it’s spending $22.6 million over three years to expand the existing program for prescribed supply, with the goal of providing users alternatives and steer them away from the toxic drug supply.

The rollout of the new policy will be through a phased approach, with the first taking place over the next 18 to 24 months. The province says it will look at data to “assess this approach.”

The province announcing today expanding access to supply to combat the #opioidcrisis
Minister for Mental Health & Addiction @s_malcolmson says phase 1 will see prescription access increased in exisiting channels (will be in this stage for 18-24 months). #bcpoli @NEWS1130 pic.twitter.com/z4KzhngVdf

— LizaYuzda (@LizaYuzda) July 15, 2021

New programs, such as service hubs and outreach teams are also promised, with an initial focus on a range of opioids, including offering Fentanyl patches, Fentora, injectable hydromorphone, and tablet hydromorphone.

The province says other medications will be considered on an individual basis.

“More than 7,000 people in British Columbia — our friends, our family, our community members — have lost their lives to a poisoned drug supply. And for every life, cut tragically short, there are countless more lives that have been changed forever,” said Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.

“There is no one single measure that is going to get us out of the toxic drug crisis, but this is one more step in the right direction,” she added.

In May 2021 alone, there were 160 toxic drug-related deaths. The total number of deaths from illicit drugs from January to May was 851, the most ever reported in the first five months of a calendar year.

According to the BC Coroners Service, this surpasses the 704 deaths reported at the same time last year by 21 per cent.

Related articles:

• B.C. toxic drug-related deaths hit record for first five months of 2021

• Increased demands for safe supply as drug toxicity triples in B.C.

Henry expects to see expansion of the safer supply program within a month.

“We’re getting reports of program plans from each of the health authorities within the next few weeks and they will start quickly,” she said. “We do expect this program to get started slowly and methodically, but within the next few weeks.”

Henry says the idea is to create an environment where people feel comfortable asking for safer supply.

“What we envision is that these will be places where people … can talk to a social worker, where they can talk to people who meet the needs that they may have in their life and will have access to somebody who can prescribe the medications that they need,” she said.

A staggering 7000 people have lost their lives to toxic drug supply in BC in past few years. 851 deaths so far this year (compared to 569 in same period last year).
Dr Henry saying while risk of #covid19 is easing, toxic drugs are as dangerous as ever.#bcpoli @NEWS1130

— LizaYuzda (@LizaYuzda) July 15, 2021

The province says once fully implemented, users who are at high risk of dying from the toxic illicit drugs will have access to alternatives covered by Pharmacare.

In April, B.C. requested a federal exemption to decriminalize drug possession, five years after it declared the overdose crisis a public health emergency.

Dr. Perry Kendall, who was B.C.’s provincial health officer at the time, declared the emergency due to “a frightening increase in the number of deaths in the province from illicit drug toxicity.”

At that time, the province promised funding to expand overdose prevention services across B.C.

Related video: Increased demands for safe supply as drug toxicity triples

On Wednesday, Vancouver Coun. Jean Swanson hoped to highlight the deadly toxic drug supply in the province by helping hand out a free safer supply of meth, heroin, and cocaine to users on the Downtown Eastside.

Swanson says she was invited by a pair of drug user advocacy groups, Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) to distribute the drugs outside the Vancouver Police Department’s detachment. She says the drugs were pre-tested to ensure they did not contain toxic substances such as benzodiazepines or fentanyl.

With files from Mike Lloyd, Hana Mae Nassar, Paul James, and Nikitha Martins