BC Conservative Critics for Public Safety and Mental Health & Addictions call on government to implement doctor-recommended measures to stop diversion

Addiction Medicine Canada, a collective of over 30 addiction medicine clinicians from across the country, has written a letter to B.C.’s Minister of Health Josie Osborne with a set of guidelines on how to curb the diversion of opioids prescribed under “safe supply” programs.

Elenore Sturko (MLA for Surrey-Cloverdale and Critic for Public Safety) and Claire Rattée (MLA for Skeena and Critic for Mental Health & Addictions) call on the health minister to immediately commit to the recommendations of Addiction Medicine Canada and stop prescribed hydromorphone from getting into the hands of youth and gangs once and for all.

“We are mere days away from the U.S. government’s planned implementation of 25% tariffs on Canadian exports. Part of the reason for these tariffs is because the NDP government has been fueling international organized crime through their taxpayer-funded ‘safe supply’ programs for the better part of a decade,” said Sturko. 

“When our American neighbours see us dumping thousands and thousands of pills into the cross-border illicit market, and into the hands of youth, of course they want us to correct course. Minister Osborne and Premier Eby have one final chance, at the eleventh hour, to show that B.C. is serious about keeping drugs from crossing the border. They must commit to expert-recommended measures to prevent diversion.”

“Health Minister Josie Osborne’s mandate letter from Premier David Eby tasked her with preventing the diversion of prescribed opioids and reducing the overall prevalence of opioid prescriptions,” said Rattée. “There is no reason for the minister to refuse the recommendations from this organization of Canadian addiction medicine clinicians.”

According to Addiction Medicine Canada, there has never been a controlled trial study on “safe supply” programs. The studies conducted so far, on which the BC NDP has based their policy, are not reliable. Moreover, there has never been a formal study into the prevalence of prescribed opioid diversion, even though we know from family, media, and clinician reports that diversion to youth is occurring. 

Addiction Medicine Canada’s recommendations to community opioid agonist treatment providers include: 

• Have a pharmacist or nurse supervise any and all dosing of hydromorphone 
• Restrict hydromorphone prescriptions to patients who are both high-risk opioid users and whose drug use history meets certain medical criteria 
• Discontinue the practice of prescribed take-home hydromorphone tablets 
  

“To what degree can we call ‘safe supply’ a harm reduction measure, when ultimately the diversion we are seeing is increasing the number of people using and being harmed by opioids?” said Sturko.