The B.C. government will end a component of its so-called “safe supply” program after extensive reporting that showed hard drugs distributed by pharmacists were being diverted to the black market.
On Wednesday, B.C. NDP Health Minister Josie Osborne said the practice of allowing users to take their prescribed opioids home will be limited to a “witnessed model,” meaning users will have to be watched by health professionals as they consume the drugs.
Health Minister Josie Osborne and Public Safety Minister Garry Begg made the announcement following the leak of a provincial briefing document revealing the government was aware the drugs were being diverted for illicit purposes.
The government hopes that the change to a “witnessed model” will reduce the diversion of drugs provided under the “safe supply” program, such as hydromorphone.
Hydromorphone, typically sold under the brand name Dilaudid and the street name “dillies” among others, is a morphinan opioid used to treat moderate to severe pain.
Typically, hydromorphone’s long-term use is only recommended for pain due to cancer or severe injuries – but the safe supply program prescribes the drug as a “safer alternative” to illicit heroin and fentanyl.
Osborne said of the diversion issue: “we’ve heard concerns about these medications being diverted and ending up in the wrong hands.”
The “witnessed model” would attempt to reduce or elimination such diversion. It would operate similarly to the way drugs like methadone are currently dispensed.
Under this model, users will need to be witnessed by a healthcare worker or pharmacist while consuming their drugs.
Osborne told reporters during the Wednesday press conference – ahead of the first B.C. legislature question period in mine months – the change would be immediate for new patients, while there would be a “smooth and safe transition” for current participants in the program.
It is uncertain whether the contentious and controversial “safe supply” program has been successful so far in reducing overdoses.
Data released by the B.C. Emergency Health Services shows that inbound calls for drug overdoses and poisoning have gone up, and almost doubled, in virtually every major municipality in the province since the “safe supply” program was originally introduced in 2020.
B.C. healthcare authorities’ acknowledgment of diversion of safer supply drugs is a dramatic shift in tone. Last March, then-public safety minister Mike Farnworth said the allegations were “simply not true.”