BC is now supplying free drugs to addicts
 

Yeah, wow I just have nothing to add. I was mad when I read I had to pay for other people's power, now federal taxes are going to keep people stoned out of what is left of their minds?

(It is SO DIFFICULT not using colorful adjectives here)

The users are rejoicing, they will no longer have to steal for fixes. Huzah.
Excuse me while I puke for a few months.

NewsWorldAmericas
Free cocaine, meth and heroin for everyone: One city’s plan to tackle its drug problem
The province of British Columbia is the nexus of Canada’s drug overdose crisis and in its fifth year of a public health emergency, writes Ashleigh Stewart in Vancouver


https://vancouversun.com/health/b-c-...verdose-crisis

B.C. to offer Canada's first, permanent safe drug supply in response to overdose crisis
The initiative will start by offering opioid replacements, including fentanyl patches. Stimulants will come later. Prescribed heroin is not included in the program, because of a lack of supply, the minister says.

Author of the article:Lori Culbert, Dan Fumano
Publishing date:Jul 16, 2021 • 3 days ago • 5 minute read • 146 Comments
Several dozen protestors march through the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, BC Tuesday, May 11, 2021 calling for a safe supply of street drugs.
Several dozen protestors march through the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, BC Tuesday, May 11, 2021 calling for a safe supply of street drugs. PHOTO BY JASON PAYNE /PNG
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B.C. will be the first province in Canada to permanently provide access to a safe drug supply, in an effort to reduce a staggering number of overdose deaths — a groundbreaking step that is being hailed as life-saving but also criticized for taking so long to achieve and not going far enough.

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The move comes after more than 7,000 British Columbians have died from toxic drugs since a public health emergency was declared in 2016 — a crisis that grew worse with the introduction of pandemic restrictions.

Government announces new policy on prescribed safer drug supply | Vancouver Sun
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And the new rollout will begin slowly, at pre-existing clinics that already offer pharmaceutical replacement drugs as part of a trial program. It will at first offer just opioid replacement options, including fentanyl patches and tablets. Stimulants or prescribed heroin will not be part of the first phase.

In response to questions about whether the government is acting quickly enough to save the lives of drug users who are being fatally poisoned at a rate of five people a day, officials with the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions argued they are moving as fast as they can with the innovative program.

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“I would have loved it to be faster, I would have loved to have prevented (the overdose deaths) from happening,” Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, who called for a regulated opioid supply two years ago, said at the government announcement Thursday.

“(But) we’ve learned a lot about what people need, the substances people need to support them now. And I’m just happy we’re moving forward as quickly as we can right now.”

Dr. Bonnie Henry, Provincial Health Officer, announced that to help save lives by separating more people from the poisoned illicit drug supply, British Columbia is phasing in a new policy to expand access to prescribed safer supply.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, Provincial Health Officer, announced that to help save lives by separating more people from the poisoned illicit drug supply, British Columbia is phasing in a new policy to expand access to prescribed safer supply. PHOTO BY DON CRAIG /PNG
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which exacerbated the existing overdose crisis, the B.C. government created a temporary safe supply program, allowing doctors and nurses to prescribe medication alternatives to substances, including opioids, alcohol, stimulants and benzodiazepines.

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Now, $22.6 million has been earmarked over the next three years for the five health authorities to make this safe supply a permanent option, starting with opioids. Fentanyl patches had previously been offered in a limited trial project, and that will now be significantly expanded.

“Nowhere else in Canada can anybody be prescribed a fentanyl patch for this purpose, so that really is a breakthrough, and is based on input that we heard strongly through our consultations (with drug users),” Mental Health and Addictions Minister Sheila Malcolmson told Postmedia, adding she doesn’t agree the program rollout is moving too slowly.

“When you are the first, then sometimes it takes a little bit longer than you’d like … (but) absolutely, we feel the urgency of the public health emergency.”

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Sheila Malcolmson, B.C.’s minister of mental health and addictions.
Sheila Malcolmson, B.C.’s minister of mental health and addictions. PHOTO BY DON CRAIG /Government of B.C. files
The government’s announcement said the first phase of the initiative will be in place for 18 to 24 months, starting with the expansion of health authority programs that already prescribe alternatives to illicit drugs. Many of those clinics are urban and at capacity, but the province plans to extend these services to more remote areas with a combination of more staff and resources at existing clinics, plus adding new programs and outreach teams.

Malcolmson said the five health authorities must report back to government in the next two weeks with their implementation plans, and more details will be known then. “We think that it might take three to six months for actual things on the ground for the patient,” she said.

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Dr. Shannon McDonald, acting chief medical health officer of the First Nations Health Authority, said there are issues that need to be addressed for rural communities, such as training health-care providers so they are comfortable prescribing these drugs, and figuring out how to safely transport the drug supply from the city.

“There are some potential challenges related to the rollout of this program to ensure that it fulfills the cultural, health and wellness needs of First Nations, and especially for those who use drugs,” said McDonald, who added Indigenous people are disproportionately victims of the overdose crisis. “We know that there continues to be barriers for Indigenous people based on differential access, less trust, and racism experienced in the health-care system.”

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Paramedics respond to an emergency medical call in the 100-block E. Hastings Street in Vancouver, BC Thursday, April 22, 2021.
Paramedics respond to an emergency medical call in the 100-block E. Hastings Street in Vancouver, BC Thursday, April 22, 2021. PHOTO BY JASON PAYNE /PNG
Donald MacPherson, executive director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition at Simon Fraser University, said: “In normal times, this would be significant progress.”

But, he said, the severity of the current long-running crisis means these are not normal times.

People in the provincial government have been working hard to provide a way to access “pharmaceutical alternatives to the totally deadly illegal drug market,” MacPherson said. But the problem with the program, he said, is its “highly medical context” means it will be limited to those “who can navigate the health system, who have a doctor, or have a connection with a nurse who can prescribe.”

“Many people don’t have those connections, and their use of health services is the emergency ward, primarily,” he said.

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While Thursday’s changes put B.C. at the forefront of North American jurisdictions on these kinds of interventions, MacPherson said, “It’s not good enough for B.C. to say, ‘We’re doing more than anybody else.’ When the results are better than other places, then let’s talk about that. Our results are terrible, and we’re really just scratching the surface.”

“This is not an emergency response, it’s an incremental response,” MacPherson said. “I’m happy that something is happening, but it’s very sad that we as a society are just at the beginnings of crafting a new system for people to access a safer supply of substances, after so many years of so many deaths.”

A man sits slumped over, surrounded by drug paraphernalia, in an alley behind the 100-block East Hastings Street in Vancouver on Thursday, February 11, 2021.
A man sits slumped over, surrounded by drug paraphernalia, in an alley behind the 100-block East Hastings Street in Vancouver on Thursday, February 11, 2021. PHOTO BY JASON PAYNE /PNG
Vince Tao, a community organizer with the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, said: “This step is a decent one. But it is, as always, too little, too late.”

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Tao said it seems unusual the policy includes fentanyl patches and injectable hydromorphone, but not heroin, which has been prescribed in a limited capacity in B.C. for years. Researchers from Providence Health Care and the University of B.C. led North America’s first clinical trial of prescribed heroin back in 2005.

Malcolmson said prescription heroin is not being included at this time because the government has not been able to find a domestic supply. She had no timeline on its inclusion, but said the government would continue to look for a reliable provider.

She also “recognized there is a need” to include replacements for stimulants — the category of street drugs including cocaine and amphetamines — in the program, but could not say when that would happen.

Henry said roughly 6,000 drug users have accessed some type of safe supply during the temporary program over the last year, but there are an estimated 60,000 British Columbians with a substance use disorder.

“There is no one single measure that is going to get us out of the toxic drug crisis, but this is one more step in the right direction,” Henry added.

Yeah.... i just saw this the other day as well.

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showp...&postcount=110

Ah, sorry B, I will ask for it to be deleted.

still puking

wouldn't bother deleting since i resurrected TreeGuy's three year old thread! :sHa_shakeshout:

"Don't feed the bears"!

If it saves just one life.

Jesus wept.

I know it doesnt sound right.Will see if does anything,problem is dirty drugs.Perhaps this stops the cash flow to the people making/spiking the drugs?

Its government,they never do things right.Perhaps this will stop a few deaths.Time will tell.

People will do drugs no matter where they come from.

Cutting out the dealers seems a good idea.

Supplying clean drugs with measured doses is a good idea. We pay millions to treat overdoses already, this might eliminate a lot of overdoses.

Drugs are actually cheap to supply, fentanyl is dirt cheap.

Addicts won’t have to steal all our stuff to sell in order to buy drugs

So should we get all indignant that “they” get drugs that we pay for? We’re paying for them already by losing our possessions to theft.

It’s not ideal but there’s not really a real alternative. “Just say no” doesn’t work obviously.

Give the $22 large to Children's Hospitals. Little people who really need a chance.
Fentanyl patches ? Man , gimmee a break.

At least in BC Canada's homeless are well stoned all the time...|I wonder if they all vote Liberal?

And here I thought the smoke was from forest Fires! Now I know!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Crack Heads!:bad_boys_20:

Hourly wage at the distribution houses will be $200.00 with kevlar vests and Rem 1911's deemed essential worker ppe.

Be interesting to see how much the crime rate drops.
I’ve always said if drugs were free, the crime rate would drop to half.

I'm optimistic and let's be fair what we've been doing this far certainly has not worked.

lol, it's not about government doing it right here, it's about government doing it in there favor

I saw a neuroscientist on TV talking about the same legalizing of hard drugs. He does research into the effects of hard drugs. He was all for legalizing hard drugs to combat overdoses and home lab made drugs. And he also said he is a heroin user for 6 years. Go figure.

Now BC is going to have to worry about how the drug cartels are going earn their money. And they are armed to the teeth. BC won't have to worry about the addicts. They'll have to worry about the drug lords busting in with guns blazing for people's money.

Seems like it's a money shift from drug cartels to the big pharma companies. Both are crooks. Then BC's gov't will probably defund some policing because they won't need their drug division officers.

The truly funny experience of the Safe Injection Site at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, is that the users accuse the nurses of stealing the good drugs for themselves.

The dose given out is approved by a Pharmacist and does not even come close to what the users are taking every day on the street.

That is why the street people have so little interest in the free drugs being handed out. The Government drugs don't even get these people high any more.

But it was a feel good idea for BC Politicians.


Drewski

I swear they are trying to turn this once beautiful country into a ****hole

And then again, free drugs may just create more addicts, and even more problems, and cost the taxpayers even more money.

Nope, they all get stoned and then go see what they can steal at Walmart...some carts stopped before leaving the store have had in excess of 6000.00 worth of merchandise.
2.9 million in theft from 1 store in 1 year ....and just WHO do you guys think is paying for this BS.
thank you bleeding heart Liberals now go blank blank....:snapoutofit:

They are stealing because they’re addiction requires them to steal to keep obtaining more drugs. They aren’t stealing for kicks.:snapoutofit:

They are succeeding.

Yeah lets just keep going with the status quo, lord knows its been working. Too bad the enlightened ones here can't come up with a better plan to deal with the problem we face together as a society. There's alot more to it then just people wanting to get high but its sad so many can't see that...

I think there are lots of people that have ideas how to deal with the problems. Many would just never agree to it; or possibly be offended by the ideas.

Yeah but, the FREE injection site provide them with FREE drugs, and condoms(do you think they use condoms) we know they use the drugs. So no its not to obtain more drugs (the libtards got that covered) it because they are low life scum that roam our streets and society with impunity to their actions.

:snapoutofit:

I said come up with a better plan. The ideas I'm sure you're referring to are not a better plan...:rolleye2:

Maybe its time to give of free booze at a AA meeting

Maybe some of the homeless will move to BC. Since the safe injection site in Lethbridge has come and gone I’m seeing a lot more people at the homeless shelter.

This plan is totally unproven, so it could be a massive failure. His idea may work better. At the very least, they may attract some Alberta addicts to B.C., which would benefit Alberta.

Oh please do tell, it sounds like you are the enlightened one. Or is it "woke'?