B.C. rejects Henry report backing non-prescribed alternates to fentanyl, other drugs

VICTORIA — B.C's Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry joked that"the earth shook" with Thursday's release of her report on the safer-supply drug program, referring to an earthquake lightly felt on Vancouver Island that morning.

"Ultimately, we cannot prescribe our way out of this crisis," Henry said in the report."Finding new ways to enable access to alternatives to unregulated drugs will require bold conversations, system-level changes, and thinking outside of the constraints that have so far failed to turn this crisis around."

In a written response to Henry's report, Mental Health and Addictions Minister Jennifer Whiteside said the province does not agree with the recommendation and"will not go in the direction" of"non-medical models of distributing medications." Henry's report echoed the findings of 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.

The Conservatives said in a written release that the party wanted Henry's"immediate dismissal," calling her recommendations"deeply troubling,""shocking" and"irresponsible." DULF co-founders Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx were arrested last October and charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking, closing the"compassion club" service after about a year in operation.

"I don't want to stigmatize drug users," he said."But I definitely want to stigmatize drug use, the same way we stigmatize smokers when we said we're not going to allow open use of smoking in public spaces and beaches and parks and playgrounds and office buildings and restaurants."

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