Drug users in Northern B.C. scrambling to get safe supply
Program to replace street drugs struggles in rural areas
PRINCE GEORGE — At one point, Juls Budau says her boyfriend was going through $4,000 worth of cocaine in a week.
He would express a desire to get sober and then in the middle of the night ask for a ride to a nearby ATM to pay his drug dealer, Budau said.
When B.C. rolled out its new guidelines to provide a safe supply of prescription drugs, Budau thought it would provide a measure of relief and help wean her boyfriend off a potentially toxic drug supply.
But that hasn’t happened and Budau believes medical professionals are not closely following the safe supply guidelines.
“It’s been a struggle,” she said from Prince George. “I got the feeling everyone thought I was drug seeking on behalf of my boyfriend instead of helping him get off a really dangerous cocaine habit.”
British Columbia is the first province in the country to roll out safe supply guidelines over concerns street drugs would become more toxic during the novel coronavirus pandemic and more users would do drugs alone. Advocates and drug policy researchers have praised the guidance as a good first step in tackling B.C.’s overdose crisis.
“When they have access to a more predictable supply of opioids or stimulants or benzodiazepines as the guidelines outline, folks are able to reduce or eliminate illegal activities,” said Cheyenne Johnson, the co-interim executive director of the B.C. Centre on Substance Use.
The access to a safe supply of pharmaceutical drugs is a particularly pressing issue in Northern B.C., which saw the highest rate of overdose-related deaths in March.
Budau’s experience highlights the problems users can face when trying to obtain a safe supply of drugs in communities outside of Metro Vancouver, health-care workers say.
So-called wraparound care is available where access to health care and housing is linked, such as in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside where a drug user can see a medical professional who has ties to the building they live in.
“Ultimately, this guidance works incredibly well in particular contexts, particularly where there’s this wraparound care that we have in very limited settings,” said Dr. Ashley Heaslip, a medical lead with the PHS Community Services Society, which provides housing and health care in Vancouver and Victoria.
Heaslip said the guidance should be adjusted in the future to help people living outside the larger cities.
“There won’t be a one-size fits all approach,” she said.
Zak Matieschyn, a nurse practitioner in Nelson and director of the addiction medicine nurse practitioner fellowship with the B.C. Centre on Substance Use, said he faces a struggle when determining dosages for patients who can live up to an hour away.
“Is it reasonable to give someone three days’ worth of drugs for them to use? Are they going to use it correctly or are they going to divert it and sell it?” Matieschyn said. “What are the impacts on the community versus doing nothing?”
It’s a situation Budau is familiar with. Her boyfriend was prescribed 40 milligrams of Ritalin, despite being eligible for 100 milligrams a day as an alternative to cocaine.
“When they prescribe Ritalin for ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), they prescribe it as a small amount and work their way up” said Budau. “That’s not really appropriate for someone doing $300 to $700 of cocaine in a day.”
About 450 people are being prescribed legal pharmaceutical alternatives to illicit drugs across B.C., with 400 in the Vancouver area, say the health authorities for those districts.
The Northern, Interior and Fraser health authorities declined to provide the number of people being prescribed drugs.