B.C. tightens so-called safe-supply program as Charter challenge unfolds
The British Columbia NDP government is changing course on its so-called safe-supply program, moving to witnessed-consumption requirements for its prescribed opioid model.
Author: Alex Zoltan
The British Columbia NDP government is changing course on its so-called safe-supply program, moving to witnessed-consumption requirements for its prescribed opioid model at the same time a landmark Charter challenge on drug policy brought by the Drug User Liberation Front plays out in the B.C. Supreme Court.
The Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions, the Ministry of Health, and the province’s College of Physicians say the changes will take effect provincewide on December 30, marking the end of take-home prescribed alternatives for most clients.
The shift comes as lawyers for the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) argue that providers of regulated drug alternatives should be protected under Sections 7 and 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantee the right to life, liberty and security of the person, and protection from discrimination — including on the basis of disability tied to severe substance-use disorder.
The government’s prescribed-alternatives program—commonly referred to as “safer supply”—was first enabled under a July 2021 policy direction issued jointly by the health ministries and the Office of the Provincial Health Officer.
The model permitted physicians and nurse practitioners to prescribe pharmaceutical-grade opioids and other medications to allegedly help people avoid the increasingly volatile illicit drug supply.
Early proponents of that program, including UBC professor Dr. Thomas Kerr, have spent much of this week offering “expert witness testimony” in the Vancouver, B.C., Supreme Court in relation to the DULF Charter challenge case.
In Victoria, the provincial government’s messaging on the radical DULF experiment—where two individuals began selling cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines they purchased off the dark web as an apparent expansion of the so-called “safer supply” model—has been mixed.
Once calling DULF’s activities “life-saving work,” Premier David Eby has since distanced himself from the group and its activities.
The province announced a major reversal in its “safer supply program” nine months ago. New clients would be required to consume their doses under direct observation by a clinician or pharmacist, with existing clients transitioning over time.
Health Minister Josie Osborne said at the time that the witnessed-consumption requirement was aimed at curbing diversion, following leaked internal government documents indicating a “significant proportion” of prescribed opioids were being trafficked — despite years of NDP and RCMP denials.
She said the new rules are intended to ensure “pharmaceutical alternatives wind up in the hands of those who need them.”
The province says limited exemptions will be available in “exceptional circumstances,” including rural communities with limited clinical capacity or pharmacies that cannot operate seven days a week. Other exemptions may be granted for people whose work schedules make daily witnessed dosing impractical.