{"id":20552,"date":"2026-01-04T13:34:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T12:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=20552"},"modified":"2026-03-10T21:13:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T20:13:25","slug":"critics-react-to-changes-to-b-c-overdose-prevention-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2026\/01\/critics-react-to-changes-to-b-c-overdose-prevention-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Critics react to changes to B.C. overdose-prevention program"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"c-stack b-right-rail__navigation\" data-style-direction=\"vertical\" data-style-justification=\"start\" data-style-alignment=\"unset\" data-style-inline=\"false\" data-style-wrap=\"nowrap\">\n<nav id=\"main-nav\" class=\"b-header-nav-chain \" aria-label=\"Sections Menu\">\n<div class=\"b-header-nav-chain__top-layout\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.themebuilder.aws.arc.pub\/bellmediainc\/1730923620658.svg\" alt=\"CTVNews Logo\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<nav class=\"c-stack b-header-nav-chain__links-list\" aria-label=\"Top Links\" data-style-direction=\"horizontal\" data-style-justification=\"start\" data-style-alignment=\"center\" data-style-inline=\"false\" data-style-wrap=\"wrap\"><\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<\/nav>\n<\/header>\n<section class=\"b-right-rail__main\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"main\">\n<div class=\"c-grid b-right-rail__rail-container\">\n<div class=\"c-stack b-right-rail__main-interior-item\" data-style-direction=\"vertical\" data-style-justification=\"start\" data-style-alignment=\"unset\" data-style-inline=\"false\" data-style-wrap=\"nowrap\">\n<div class=\"c-attribution b-byline-custom-block\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">By Rob Buffam\u00a0 &#8211; December 31, 2025<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"b-lead-art-custom\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<figure class=\"c-media-item\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<div class=\"c-stack b-lead-art-custom__jasper c-jasper-player\" data-style-direction=\"vertical\" data-style-justification=\"start\" data-style-alignment=\"unset\" data-style-inline=\"false\" data-style-wrap=\"nowrap\">\n<div class=\"b-lead-art-custom__jasper-dg3kn7jb3\">\n<div class=\"c-jasper-player__player jasper-player-root__container--W1IfG jasper-player-root__aspect-ratio--KEs6u\">\n<div class=\"jasper-player-root__enforce-sized-container--pmsN3\">\n<div>\n<div id=\"jasper-player-overlay\" class=\"jasper-player--small\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"Video player container\" aria-roledescription=\"Container for the video player\">\n<div class=\"jasper-player-overlay__container--vXxZG jasper-player-overlay__hidden--xbqt7\">\n<div class=\"jasper-player-controls-small-overlay__container--Dl5rk\">\n<div class=\"jasper-player-controls-small-overlay__controls--VyxQu\">\n<div class=\"jasper-player-controls-small-overlay__bottom--UcXXb\">\n<div class=\"jasper-player-controls-small-overlay__bottom-right--xvobM\">\n<div class=\"jasper-player-icon-button__container--ZYJKw jasper-player-controls-small-overlay__control--IjFae jasper-player-icon-button__visible--jKG7z\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"c-media-item__fig-caption\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\"><strong><span class=\"c-media-item__caption\">People in B.C. who are prescribed safe alternatives to deadly street drugs must now take their meds in front of a witness. Here\u2019s why advocates are concerned.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<article class=\"b-article-body\">\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">British Columbia\u2019s overdose-prevention safer supply program underwent a significant shift Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">With a few exceptions, participants in the program will now need to ingest their prescribed alternatives to street drugs in front of a health-care professional\u2014often a pharmacist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">It\u2019s a change the opposition B.C. Conservatives say is an improvement, and an acknowledgment that safer supply isn\u2019t really working.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">\u201cThis is really just managing someone\u2019s decline,\u201d said Claire Rattee, the B.C. Conservative critic for mental health and addictions. \u201cWe don\u2019t do this in any other area of mental health or medicine.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">The shift was announced in February, prompted by leaked documents confirming what critics had warned about and the NDP had disputed\u2014that significant amounts of the prescribed alternatives were being diverted and sold on the streets.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">\u201cThe government continues to paint this as a problem with bad actors in pharmacies, but the reality was that it was a government policy of giving out large quantities of highly addictive opioids,\u201d said Elenore Sturko, the Independent MLA for Surrey-Cloverdale.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">Sturko is the one who exposed the truth about diversion. She\u2019s happy about the changes, but wants a public inquiry and more answers, including about the status of investigations into the dozens of pharmacies alleged to have enabled the diversion and how widespread it was.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">\u201cWe need to have answers and clarity,\u201d said Sturko on Tuesday. \u201cWhere is the accountability for those pharmacies that were under investigation?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">The latest stats show 150 lives lost to toxic drug overdoses in October.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">Some worry Tuesday\u2019s changes could actually add to those numbers, with street drugs becoming more convenient than prescribed alternatives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">\u201cMy concern is always that if people don\u2019t go to get their prescription medications, then where will they go?\u201d asked harm reduction advocate Guy Felicella.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">The Health Ministry tells CTV News that investigations into the pharmacies began more than nine months ago and are ongoing. It says it remains committed to monitoring the program to ensure it\u2019s working as intended to save lives in a crisis that\u2019s already claimed more than 16,000 lives in nine years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">Source: https:\/\/www.ctvnews.ca\/vancouver\/article\/critics-react-to-changes-to-bc-overdose-prevention-program\/<\/span><\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Rob Buffam\u00a0 &#8211; December 31, 2025 People in B.C. who are prescribed safe alternatives to deadly street drugs must now take their meds in front of a witness. Here\u2019s why advocates are concerned. British Columbia\u2019s overdose-prevention safer supply program underwent a significant shift Tuesday. With a few exceptions, participants in the program will now [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,16,129,68,141,37,135,40,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-addiction","category-canada","category-culture","category-drug-use-various-effects","category-harm-reduction-research","category-hiv-injecting-drug-users","category-opioids","category-prevention-research","category-treatment-addiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20552"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20558,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20552\/revisions\/20558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}