B.C. ‘safe supply’ pills being resold across Canada, says RCMP
‘Organized crime groups are actively involved’
Thousands of opiate pills obtained by prescription through a “safe supply” harm reduction program have been seized by police in Prince George, B.C., after they were found to have been diverted to organized crime groups reselling them across Canada, the RCMP said.
“Organized crime groups are actively involved in the redistribution of safe supply and prescription drugs,” said Corp. Jennifer Cooper of the RCMP’S Prince George detachment.
“Many of the pills that were seized had been prescribed to specific individuals but were found all collected together, no longer belonging to those individuals,” she added. “It might mean how we regulate our safe supply might need a sober second glance.”
She said the issue has emerged in recent months.
“What we have seen in Prince George is people taking prescribed medication, some of which is dedicated as safe supply prescription drugs, and selling them to organized crime groups in exchange for more potent illicit drugs. The organized crime groups are then taking the prescription drugs and selling them interprovincially across Canada.”
Some of the recipients of the safe supply narcotics are apparently not satisfied with the government’s products.
“Our drug users are looking maybe for something more potent or something more specific than what they’d been prescribed,” said Cooper.
Search warrants by the RCMP’S Street Crew Unit have uncovered several drug trafficking groups dealing in safe supply drugs.
An investigation seized more than 10,000 pills, including gabapentin, hydromorphone, codeine and dextroamphetamine, police said. In addition to prescription drugs, investigators also found large quantities of suspected fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine.
A second investigation uncovered more than two kilograms of suspected cocaine and methamphetamine as well as cash and thousands of additional prescription pills, including oxycodone, morphine and hydromorphone.
The pills of morphine and hydromorphone, both pharmaceutical opioids, were originally safe supply prescription drugs, Cooper said.
Safe supply or safer supply programs are meant to reduce drug overdose deaths by providing government-funded alternatives to potentially tainted illicit drugs. It usually means distributing hydromorphone, a pharmaceutical opioid, to mitigate the use of fentanyl encountered on the street.
The RCMP investigation confirms fears of some who are opposed to safe supply as a way to curb spiking opiate addiction and drug-related deaths.
A similar divergence from the safe supply system was also uncovered by an RCMP investigation in Campbell River, B.C., in February. In that case, police seized two kilograms of fentanyl, a kilogram each of cocaine and methamphetamine, and more than 3,500 hydromorphone pills.
Investigators in Campbell River said evidence suggests the pills had been diverted from safe supply prescriptions. Extensive documentation at the scene showed “a well-organized drug trafficking operation.”
Cooper said that although the origin of the drugs is referred to as safe supply, it does not make the drugs safe.
“It concerns us because the end users who are getting these prescription pills, it’s not been prescribed for them, they don’t know the dosages.
“They are sold in bundles of a variety of pills. People are mixing them and there are going to be people who don’t understand what they are purchasing and see that it is a prescription drug and assume it may be safe. But if it is not prescribed to you it is not safe.
“If these are getting into the hands of our youth or young adults who may think this is a safe way to get high, it is concerning to us.
“It’s also concerning that it’s another way for organized crime groups to make money very quickly with little to no effort on their part,” Cooper said. “This is only perpetuating and possibly exacerbating the problem.”
Cooper said she realizes the issue is politically charged.
“I would guess this is going to get some political attention because we are pointing out what has been deemed safe is not being kept safe. It’s taxpayers that pay for this safe supply through our tax dollars that go towards our health units.
“It’s not only a problem for police, but it’s a problem for everybody who lives here and sees the cause and effects of this continuing to happen.”
Prince George, in the B.C. interior, is about the same distance north of Vancouver as it is west of Edmonton. The city of Campbell River is on the east coast of Vancouver Island, northwest of Vancouver.