But the problem isn’t about efficacy, it’s about reach.
A medicalized approach is only one part of a broader strategy. We cannot expect a prescriber-driven approach to meet the needs of tens of thousands of British Columbians at risk of fatal drug poisoning.
And these programs are primarily funded by Health Canada, not the province.
The incoming fiscal cliff of this funding stream is deeply concerning.
Many programs have no idea if funding will be extended beyond March 2023. That’s less than three months from now.
But on the outside we have provinces like #Alberta saying “BC has flooded its streets with safe supply, and it’s not working”.
The lie of BC’s #SafeSupply is fuelling anti-safe supply rhetoric outside BC.
Meanwhile, by all accounts, safe supply dispensations in BC is declining.
And that is how incrementalism and government misinformation kills a movement.
We need a #SafeSupply that includes a range models.
We need to support the scale up of existing medical models.
We need a public health model.
We need visible support for non-medical models.
So when the next report on drug poisoning deaths gets released, do not settled for lies.
We must replace the entire unregulated drug supply with regulated drugs accessible to all.
Effect of Risk Mitigation Guidance opioid and stimulant dispensation on mortality and acute care visits during dual public health emergencies: retrospective cohort study
“This study found that RMG opioid dispensations were associated with a reduced likelihood of all cause and overdose related mortality among people with a diagnosis of opioid use disorder.”
This is a massive study of almost 12,000 people.
“The protective effect of RMG opioid dispensations on mortality is congruent with findings from an evaluation of a prescribed opioid safer supply programme in Ontario in which mortality was rare among participants receiving medications”
“A Medicine Hat-based recovery organization, which has to date received six-figures in government funding, has endorsed an anti-supervised consumption site ad campaign in the U.S.”
Unfortunate, but not surprising. There is a coordinated movement underway to shift public opinion away from #HarmReduction. A movement heavily influenced by the misinformation machine in #Alberta.
Year after year in so-called #Canada, we see more of our loved ones, friends, neighbours, and community members killed by a failure to address the volatility of the unregulated drug supply.
This is not a crisis of ‘opioids’ or ‘overdose’—people are being poisoned.
We are talking about drug regulation, consumer rights, and bodily autonomy.
@kwardvancouver says it best:
“We must replace the entire illicit drug supply with regulated substances accessible to all”