VICTORIA — A report from B.C.'s provincial health officer recommends the province expand its"safer supply" program to prevent overdoses, including allowing access to alternatives to unregulated drugs without a prescription.
Her report echoes the findings from former chief coroner Lisa Lapointe, who said in January before leaving her post that prescribed safer-supply drugs would not solve the crisis that has claimed more than 14,000 lives in British Columbia since 2016. "Dr. Henry is an important independent voice on public health issues in this province, and we respect her advice," Whiteside says in a statement."However, this is a topic we do not agree on.
Henry's report says that 225,000 or more people in B.C. are accessing unregulated drugs and fentanyl continues to be the main killer, with 83 per cent of illicit drug deaths linked to the opioid. B.C.'s current prescribed safer-supply policy has been intensely debated within the province and beyond, with federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith both claiming that drugs from the program were being diverted into the rest of Canada.
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