Conservative Party of B.C. MLAs scored a significant win Wednesday even before they opened their mouths to start the inaugural question period in the new parliament.
NDP Health Minister Josie Osborne announced a significant curtailment of the safe supply policy for dealing with opioid addiction and it looks to be in direct response to concerns the Opposition started raising two years ago.
After repeatedly discounting questions about whether hard drugs prescribed to protect people from deadly street supply were being diverted to the black market, the government finally fully acknowledged it is a significant problem.
It was Conservative critic Elenore Sturko who pursued the issue and shared a devastating leaked government document that confirmed the problem. She was on the verge of tears after Osborne’s announcement, thinking about all the lives lost.
After Sturko seized on the issue and independent media stories reporting about the “prescribed alternatives program” around B.C. where patients collect their allotment of pills improperly, or routinely sold them to buyers on the sidewalk, Osborne gave a frank outline of the problem.
She said about 60 of B.C.’s 1,500 pharmacies appear to be engaged in illegal activities involving improper fees and kickbacks. They are all under investigation and subject to potential criminal investigation.
Meanwhile, the dispensing of hard drugs on demand is being changed immediately to a regime where consumption of the pills has to be witnessed by a health care worker.
Osborne said it is a significant change. The pharmacy billing system is also being changed to stop people from gaming the system.
There’s a review of the entire opioid prescribing system. Osborne said the number of prescriptions dropped by a third last year.
“We will not tolerate bad actors exploiting the health care system and putting people at risk,” she said.
Public Safety Minister Garry Begg accompanied her to the announcement and said police have been fighting diversion of prescribed drugs by going after gangs and traffickers.
The B.C. drug trade was specifically cited by U.S. President Donald Trump in connection with the threatened tariff on Canadian goods bound for the U.S.
Although the NDP government downplayed diversion of safe supply, a special investigations unit started looking at the issue last year. Sturko released a secret briefing from that unit two weeks ago that said a “significant portion” was being diverted and illegally trafficked.
Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth insisted a year ago in the legislature that “police have no evidence to suggest there is widespread diversion of safe supply drugs.”
Now the program is undergoing a major revision. It’s the second major retooling of the harm reduction approach that governed B.C.’s response to the drug crisis.
Last year the decriminalization of hard drugs was largely abandoned in the face of multiple complaints from local governments about rampant uncontrolled public drug misuse.
That is still the subject of legal actions.
Sturko said after the announcement that the changes made her think of the first time the parent of a child who died of an overdose told her they found safe-supply hydromorphone in the child’s room.
“They had started their pathway to addiction from diverted safe supply.
“I’m grateful to see this action has been taken… but I am disappointed that it took this long.”
She said the “bad actors” include the government.
This is a story of a terrible policy that enabled exploitation of people who were very sick with addiction and allowed for millions of opioids … to be trafficked, provincially and even internationally.”
Conservatives pursued the issue through question period, demanding a public inquiry into the “safe supply scandal.”
Premier David Eby said the program – started on an emergency basis during the pandemic – was an effort to put a health care professional between someone struggling with addiction and a predatory drug dealer.
Green Party interim leader Jeremy Valeriote opposed the NDP changes, saying widespread diversion has not been proven and curtailing safe supply will have unintended consequences.
People trying to maintain their lives while addicted will have to visit pharmacies multiple times a day, which could push them back to buying on the street, he said.
Just So You Know: Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry was among those who downplayed worries about the diversion of government-supplied drugs.
Osborne said she had not talked to Henry, who is on vacation, prior to the announcement.
