The panel determined prescription-free, quality-controlled drugs is the most viable, scalable short-term option to save lives in B.C.'s toxic drug crisis.
Michael Egilson, chair of an expert panel tasked with making recommendations to address B.C.'s toxic drug crisis, laid out some startling statistics in a press conference on Wed. Nov. 1, 2023. That panel is recommending the immediate expansion of the province's safer supply program as a short-term measure to save lives.An expert panel is urging the B.C.
“The current medical model for provision of safer supply faces as a number of overwhelming challenges, including scalability, geographic reach within the province, and the adequacy of available drugs to meet the needs of people accessing the unregulated drug market.”Mental Health and Addictions Minister Jennifer Whiteside has already rejected the panel’s recommendation, stating an expansion to prescription-free substances is “not under consideration.
“Our government is very focused right now on scaling up access to treatment and recovery spaces for people, working on ensuring we have the harm reduction mechanisms in place that we need, working with our health system to ensure that mental health and substance use is really, truly part of our health care system, part of primary care,” she said in an interview.“Any model that looks at withdrawing medical oversight from that process is not a direction that we’re moving in.
The province is currently in the midst of Canada’s first experiment with decriminalization; on Jan. 31, its exemption to Controlled Drugs and Substance Act took effect, allowing adults to possess 2.5 grams or less of opioids, crack, cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA for personal use.
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