A sign reading "Safe Supply Now" is seen at a gathering outside the Provincial Court of British Columbia on Jan. 16, 2024.ETHAN CAIRNS/The Canadian Press
Last Wednesday, as B.C. MLAs were about to face their first Question Period of a new parliament, newly minted Health Minister Josie Osborne held a news conference to announce her government’s rollback of one of its most controversial strategies to tackle the toxic drug crisis.
Starting on that day, anyone getting a prescribed alternative to street opioids would have to take their prescription in front of a health worker.
It’s the second significant plank of the NDP’s strategy to combat the overdose crisis to be dismantled. Last year, the government drastically walked back its experiment with decriminalization after public outcry over a perceived increase in street disorder and stories about healthcare workers being exposed in hospitals to open drug use.
The move to a witness-only model for distributing a safer supply was one some medical professionals had been calling for for months in an effort to clamp down on the diversion of those prescribed medications into the hands of organized crime or potentially, people who weren’t already using street drugs.
But concerns about diversion have repeatedly been brushed aside by the province’s former coroner and even by its former public safety minister.
In June, 2023, Lisa LaPointe, the province’s chief coroner, took exception to suggestions that hydromorphone tablets have been widely diverted to the streets, saying it was not present in “any significant numbers” as a cause of death for people who have died of overdose.
Last February, RCMP in Campbell River said they had found “significant evidence of drug trafficking,” including the seizure of some 1,400 hydromorphone pills that a spokesman said “indicated it came from safer supply.” But the next month, then-public safety minister Mike Farnworth said the idea there is widespread diversion of safer supply pills was untrue.
Then came a leak to Conservative critic Eleanore Sturko last month of a confidential 38-slide presentation to law enforcement. The slides indicated that a “significant proportion” of prescribed opioids are being diverted.
Osborne, who was sworn into the health portfolio in November, responded to the leak by saying repeatedly that it was irresponsible for the Opposition to divulge such a document involving police investigations that are still under way.
But she did not respond then to a direct question about why her government had been downplaying concerns about diversion.
The leaked document also revealed for the first time that a government investigation had uncovered evidence of some 60 pharmacies involved in a kickback scheme. The pharmacies are accused of offering patients – and even doctors and housing providers – prohibited incentives for their prescription business to maximize the amounts they can bill the province’s publicly funded drug plan, a special investigation unit has heard.
Osborne said the investigation was launched last June. The Globe and Mail reported on the problem three months earlier.
By last Wednesday, Osborne was eager to announce her government was “taking action” — a phrase she used more than a dozen times — to address both problems.
But she did not answer directly when a reporter asked her that if it hadn’t been for the leaked presentation, “would we even be standing here with a rollback of safe supply?”
Osborne said “the evidence about diversion of prescribed alternatives has come to light over the past year” -- a timeframe that dates back to just after the pubic safety minister was dismissing it as a problem.
And she did not offer specifics on what it means to have a “significant proportion” of safer supply diverted.
There has been no comment from B.C.’s provincial health officer on the government’s decision. Dr. Bonnie Henry has been a careful advocate for the safer supply program and has recommended the B.C. government dramatically expand the program and make it easier for people to access safer supply.
Her recommendations were rejected.
Those who rely on safer supply to keep them stable and away from toxic drugs say the change to require them to visit a pharmacist or other health professional potentially several times a day will make sticking with the program difficult.
Gary Siu, owner and pharmacist at Garlane Pharmacy in Vancouver, said it simply isn’t realistic to supervise a patient taking their medication numerous times a day.
“It’s a two-edged sword,” he said. “Witnessed ingestion is good and may reduce diversion, but at the same time, for people who really need it, it will cause some inconvenience. There is no clear answer, yes or no.”
This is the weekly British Columbia newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.