Backed by former chief coroner, BC Greens introduce platform to address toxic drug crisis

The BC Green Party introduced a plan Tuesday to confront the province’s toxic drug crisis ahead of the October election.

Party Leader Sonia Furstenau was on the campaign trail, saying that “political cowardice” is costing too many lives, and B.C. needs “serious, long-term solutions, not quick fixes.”

She says in the eight years of the public health emergency, 15,000 people have died in B.C.

“Instead of witnessing real and substantive improvements, this crisis has only become more deadly, more dangerous, and more unpredictable. If we don’t confront this public health emergency with the serious and necessary response that it requires, we will continue to lose parents, children, elders, friends, neighbors, and siblings,” said Furstenau.

Furstenau says the BC Green Party policy is evidence-based.

If elected, the party promises to expand access to safer, regulated pharmaceutical alternatives by broadening safer supply programs and demedicalizing the development process for access models.

“To reduce stigma and barriers in the current system, [the party will] explore a non-prescriber model for regulated pharmaceutical alternatives in collaboration with health authorities and advocacy groups,” the party shared in a release.

It also promises to regulate treatment and recovery programs with a “robust, evidence-based” standard, and a centralized database.

Finally, the party promised to update and improve drug education and enhance mental health support in schools.

As opposed to her political opponents, Furstenau says she’s not offering vague promises.

“We’re not here to continue with the rhetoric that is becoming far too dominant around this crisis. We listen to experts who know what works, we look at what is working in other jurisdictions, and we’re ready to put these evidence-based strategies into action to save lives and build a safer, healthier British Columbia for everybody,” she said.

Furstenau was backed by Leslie McBain of Moms Stop the Harm and former BC Coroners Service chief coroner Lisa Lapointe.

Lapointe says involuntary care, which both the BC NDP and BC Conservatives have promised to introduce if elected, is not effective.

“There is a dearth of evidence. And if you look at the report that the [BC NDP government] released with its announcement, you will see that the expert that they relied on admits that there is very little evidence that this works, and in fact, it may cause further harm,” said Lapointe.

“If people can’t access the voluntary care that they’re trying to access, how can we then incarcerate them involuntarily when there’s no evidence that that would be successful? We are just setting ourselves up for a disaster.”

She says there is evidence that the risk of death remains after treatment, adding that people who have been abstinent for a period of time and then use drugs again are more vulnerable to a toxic drug event.

“We need to have standards for treatment. We need to regulate the treatment industry across the province. We need to gather information about how many people are seeking treatment, how many people have success with treatment? What is the definition of success? How many people are alive a year after their treatment, or two years after their treatment? So treatment is important, clearly, but it needs to be evidence based,” said Lapointe.

Likewise, she says the latest Coroners Service statistics show that fewer people have died since certain illicit drugs were decriminalized.

Lapointe says she’s grateful to the BC Green Party for a platform that listens to the evidence.