Critics of safe supply say the system is in its infancy and that it’s far too early to say whether it will really reduce overdoses and other harms.
A new study of the earliest formal program to offer prescription opioids to drug users suggests their health improved under the medication, one of the study’s authors says. But some experts warn it’s too early to draw conclusions about the efficacy of safe supply programs.
She cautioned that “obviously more work needs to be done” and “we don’t ever want to make broad, sweeping statements based on one study.” “The researchers saw a rapid decrease in emergency department visits, hospitalizations [including hospitalizations for certain bacterial infections associated with injection drug use] and health care costs [excluding costs related to primary care and medication],” a news release on the study said.
Dr. Sereda said the Unity Health study confirms what she sees in her practice. She said 94 per cent of participants stay in the program, a much higher share than stay on methadone or buprenorphine, other substitute drugs prescribed to drug users. Participants who have HIV have also improved, she said. They are given HIV drugs along with their safe supply. “They take their HIV medications every day now.”
Toronto author and doctor Vincent Lam said that while the researchers behind the report are well-respected and that it was great to see more analysis of such an important issue, the study did not prove the case for what he called public supply of addictive drugs.
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