XPost: van.general, bc.general, bc.politics
XPost: alt.true-crime, can.politics, alt.drugs.hard
From: gregpcarr@yahoo.ca

A UBC doctor says a pilot project to hand out pure drugs in a bid to
curb overdose deaths in British Columbia comes with its own risks.

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BC CDC) is looking at dispensing hydromorphone pills, better known as dilaudid, to registered users who
could take them home and swallow, snort or inject them.

The drug is a pharmaceutical-grade opioid five times as strong as
morphine.




Potential candidates would be given a card with a daily limit, and
could possibly access the drugs through anonymous vending machines at
existing addiction or healthcare facilities.

Speaking on CKNW’s The Jill Bennett Show, clinical associate professor
Dr. Launette Rieb with UBC’s Department of Family Practice says the
approach carries its own dangers.


“People can still overdose on [hydromorphone]. It’s an unsupervised
model,” Rieb said.

“Also, this doesn’t purify the stimulant use supply, which is also
tainted with fentanyl. And to hand out stimulants is also a very
unproven tactic. So is giving take-home doses to inject.”



The BC CDC says it hopes to kick off the pilot project in April. Last
month, B.C.’s Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Judy Darcy
said, “We look forward to seeing the results of that research.”

Between January and October 2017, more than 1,200 people died of
suspected illicit drug overdoses in B.C., with fentanyl detected in
about 83 per cent of cases, according to BC Coroners Service data.




While users could pass the “clean” dilaudid on to other, unregistered
users, officials have said that’s not a primary concern as it will
still help counter the supply of tainted street drugs.

But Rieb said with evidence showing as many as 80 per cent of heroin
users began their addiction through prescription opioids, the program
could also add fuel to the fire.

“By putting medical grade drugs on the street, we already saw what
that did when we had very liberal prescribing of hydromorphone and
oxycodone and other prescription drugs. It really ramped up the
overall addiction issue.”



Rieb said while harm reduction is important, the approach fails to
address what she calls the underlying cause of overdose deaths:
addiction.

“I think that the focus should be to look at some of the innovative
treatment strategies that are underutilized or underfunded in British Columbia,” she said.

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This project is foolhardy.

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