Two years after saying it wasn’t happening, a year after arguing there was no evidence, and nine months after promising to maybe start tracking the issue, the BC NDP government finally admitted this week that yes, a huge amount of its safe supply prescription drugs are finding their hands into criminals and fuelling an underground network of drug trafficking.
Sort of.
The government would probably still be trying to artfully dodge the whole issue if it wasn’t for the fact BC Conservative MLA Elenore Sturko got her hands on an internal Ministry of Health presentation that laid out the situation pretty clearly.
“A significant portion of the opioids being freely prescribed by doctors and pharmacists are not being consumed by their intended recipients,” read the report, written by a ministry investigative unit and shared with police.
“Prescribed alternatives are trafficked provincially, nationally and internationally.”
By this point, you’d either have to be living under a rock, or be an elected member of the BC NDP caucus, to not already know how big a problem diverted safe supply has become.
“The NDP and their bureaucrats spent years downplaying the extent and harms of their taxpayer funded drug trafficking,” Sturko posted on social media, after releasing the new presentation.
“Now they are shifting the blame and patting themselves on the back — shameful.”
Two years ago, Sturko brought the issue to the floor of the legislature, only to be told by New Democrats that she was fear mongering, stigmatizing and shaming the vulnerable addicted.
Media outlets began reporting discarded government prescription packaging for dilaudid pills outside pharmacies, with concerned neighbours sounding alarm bells about open drug dealing of government pills.
Numerous reporters went out and easily bought packaged dilaudid on the street, reporting it on the nightly TV news. An addictions medicine doctor went public with concerns.
But the NDP wouldn’t budge.
“We have spoken to chiefs of police across B.C., as well as the Ministry of Public Safety and solicitor general, and they are not reporting seeing an increase in diverted hydromorphone in seizures and in drug trafficking,” then-addictions minister Jennifer Whiteside said in May 2023.
By early 2024, alarm bells were ringing even louder.
Local police detachments across B.C. began reporting safe supply showing up in drug seizures, alongside cash, weapons and other drug paraphernalia. Tens of thousands of safe supply drugs, including hydromorphone pills, were recovered in drug dens amidst raids by police in Nanaimo, Campbell, River, Prince George and Kelowna.
“I’m very confident in saying that they were diverted from safe supply,” Campbell River RCMP Insp. Jeff Preston told the Northern Beat news outlet.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry defended the program, saying the “extent and impacts are unknown” of any diversion, but if it was happening it “may be of benefit” to people at risk of drug poisoning. The former chief coroner suggested diversion could help drive out organized criminals from the drug trade. A coroner’s death review panel urged relaxing the rules on safe supply to make it flow even easier.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her addictions minister publicly called on B.C. to rein in its prescriptions, amidst worries government pills were flowing into her province. B.C. ministers denied it was a problem, and Premier David Eby said he’d be willing to “receive any information or evidence that they have on diversion” while adding, “if it is happening.”
It was.
Then, the tipping point. Last April, senior leadership in the Vancouver Police Department and the B.C. RCMP told federal MPs that government safe supply was being trafficked by organized crime across the province.
Half the pills seized by police came from the provincial safe supply program, testified VPD Deputy Chief Const. Fiona Wilson, president of the BC Association of Chiefs of Police.
No longer able to ignore the issue, the NDP tried to cover its flank, reversing most of the province’s controversial drug decriminalization pilot. The issue of diverted safe supply, however, was left largely untouched.
Eby told the legislature in May 2024 he’d investigate whether officials could put chemical tracers in government pills, to determine the extent of any diversion to organized crime. Nine months later, the Ministry of Health admits it hasn’t made any progress on that proposal.
The new leaked internal ministry report also confirms concerns that crooked pharmacies may be playing a role in the proliferation of safe supply into the hands of criminals.
The report cited more than 60 pharmacies under investigation for claiming publicly covered dispensing fees of up to $11,000 per patient annually to fill safe supply prescriptions. That stockpile of cash was allegedly used to pay incentives to doctors, health-care workers, housing staff and even patients themselves to drum up more lucrative safe supply prescriptions to their pharmacies.
It’s a disturbing revelation.
But it’s too bad the crack squad of officials overseeing all of this couldn’t have just read the March 28, 2024 story in The Globe and Mail by reporter Andrea Woo that outlined the kickback scheme in detail a year ago. Instead, the Ministry of Health ducked the issue at the time, saying anyone with any evidence of wrongdoing should take it to the college overseeing pharmacists.
Health Minister Josie Osborne tried to explain the contents of the leaked internal report this week by doing the only thing a minister overseeing the file could do at this point — blame the opposition for making the embarrassing information public.
“It is just so disappointing to see the opposition release information like this – that is part of an investigation,” Osborne fumed to reporters.
“The thought that any of this could be compromised is just appalling.”
Not quite as appalling as the government gaslighting the public on the issue for two years in the face of mounting evidence. But hey, who’s counting?
“I want to acknowledge that we know that this is happening,” said Osborne. “These allegations are here. There's absolutely no denial of it. There's no diminishing of it, and there should be no acceptance of it. That's why we're taking the actions that we are.”
Actions? So far, the public has seen precious little, other than the New Democrat government covering its political backside for the better part of two years as a drug diversion crisis grew around it.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 17 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for Glacier Media. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on CBC Radio.
