Thread by @ZivoAdam

🚨 SCOOP 🚨 Hydromorphone seizures in London, Ontario skyrocketed by 3,000% after access to safer supply was greatly expanded in 2020 – but the police failed to disclose this data despite the national debate about safer supply diversion. /1

nationalpost.com/opinion/adam-z…

For context: hydromorphone is a heroin-strength opioid. Safer supply programs predominantly provide this drug, for free, to addicts who then divert (sell or trade) it to the black market to acquire stronger substances, typically illicit fentanyl. /2

In an email last month, Deputy Chief Paul Batien confirmed that the London Police Service (LPS) had seized fewer than 1,000 hydromorphone pills in 2019 – but by 2023 that number had risen to 30,000. /3

The LPS only released this information to me after I spent almost two months badgering them about a drug bust in early April wherein almost 10,000 hydromorphone pills were confiscated. /4

When I first inquired about that bust, the LPS stonewalled me for three weeks. Repeated follow-ups led nowhere. I received a call from Bastien only after I directly expressed concerns about being stonewalled. /5

After Bastien and I spoke, he was supposed to send over data measuring the scale of the diversion problem – but, despite repeated follow ups, that data did not materialize after a month. /6

In early June, I gave the LPS a firm deadline and said that I would be writing an article about their response to diversion regardless if they replied. /7

That pressure tactic worked. Via the aforementioned email, they gave me the 2019-2023 hydromorphone seizure data and confirmed that the 10,000~ pill bust from April was almost certainly related to safer supply. /8

This data confirmed that the LPS had actually stonewalled me about safer supply diversion when I first reached out to them about the issue in April 2023. /9

At the time, the LPS had said, “We don’t have anyone available to speak to this, and respectfully decline your request.” But they already had 2022 data showing a 600% increase in hydromorphone seizures at that point. /10

In early June, Bastien said that he would be able to speak more freely in late June. I surmised from this language that the LPS might have been in the middle of a drug bust related to safer supply, so I postponed my article to avoid jeopardizing any operations. /11

My guess was correct. In a call last week, Bastien confirmed to me that such an investigation is now wrapping up. He said that LPS had debated how much information to share with me in April/May due to operational security concerns. /12

It is unclear why high-level data from 2019-2023 would be relevant to the operational security of a 2024 investigation, or why this data was not released in the years preceding this investigation's launch. /13

The results of this investigation will be published over the next few weeks, so we can expect more clarity on safer supply diversion at that point. /14

Bastien expressed regret over how my inquiries had been handled and blamed poor data collection and sharing practices, along with an “an institutional culture of secrecy" that leadership is currently trying to fix. /15

He denied that the LPS had withheld key data from the public and said that this data had been published in a piecemeal fashion through the media releases that accompany each drug bust. When I searched through these releases, this did not seem to be true. /16

He acknowledged that LPS had stonewalled my early 2023 investigation and, while he believed that this was "not cool," he was unaware of who had made that decision. /17

The main takeaways here are:

1) Safer supply diversion is a huge problem in London, Ontario.

2) The London Police Service betrayed the public's trust and failed to disclose key information validating the scale of this diversion until they were pressured to do so. /18

I cannot stress enough how grossly irresponsible the LPS's secrecy has been. Because they failed to share this data, dozens of doctors and myself, who have been raising awareness of this problem, were smeared as fabulists and fear-mongers. /19

They sat on this data while safer supply diversion was debated and investigated in parliament. Parliamentarians, including Trudeau and Poilievre, argued whether this diversion existed, and the LPS kept quiet. /20

Imagine how many heroin-strength pills could have been kept off the streets had the police spoken up earlier. How many people would have been spared the ravages of opioid addiction caused by these drugs? /21

There needs to be accountability. The public needs to know how this was allowed to happen. /22