VICTORIA, B.C. — The BC Greens are introducing a plan to confront BC’s drug poisoning crisis. With over 15,000 lives lost, this is an urgent public health emergency that needs serious, long-term solutions, not quick fixes.

“We are losing parents, children, elders and friends. There isn’t a single person in this province untouched by this crisis,” said BC Green Party Leader, Sonia Furstenau.  

“While the other parties are choosing to dehumanize people who use drugs, we are guided by evidence and rooted in the belief that government should focus on saving lives and ensuring services are available to all British Columbians. People cannot seek treatment or recovery if they are not alive, which is why regulated pharmaceutical alternatives to the toxic illicit drug market must be part of the response to this public health emergency.

“We must also recognize that the toxic illicit drug supply is killing people who are not dependent on substances. Occasional substance users, recreational users, and first-time users are dying or being severely injured by the toxic supply. What the other parties are proposing does nothing to end the toll that drugs being distributed by organized crime in BC is having on our communities.”

To keep people safe, informed, and supported, the BC Greens will:

1. Expand access to safer, regulated pharmaceutical alternatives by:
   
   1. Broadening safer supply programs: expand access to prescribed safer supply programs and Opioid Agonist Treatment (OAT), offering regulated substances like diacetylmorphine (DAM), fentanyl, benzodiazepines, and stimulants. This builds on the success of existing programs.
      
   2. Demedicalized model development: to reduce stigma and barriers in the current system, explore a non-prescriber model for regulated pharmaceutical alternatives in collaboration with health authorities and advocacy groups.
      
2. Regulate treatment and recovery programs:
   
   1. Standard of care: establish a robust, evidence-based standard for treatment and recovery services, regularly updated by experts and individuals with lived experience.
      
   2. Centralized database: implement a provincial database to track treatment outcomes, service availability, and adherence to the new standards, ensuring transparency and accountability.

3. Create comprehensive education and prevention programs:
   
   1. Drug education in schools: provide all schools with evidence-based, up-to-date drug safety information to equip students with the knowledge to make informed decisions.
      
   2. Enhanced mental health support: reinforce the commitment to adequate mental health support in every school, with  early intervention to prevent substance use.
      

“We have the solutions to end this crisis, we just need the will to act,” continued Furstenau. “The evidence-based policies that experts have long called for are within our reach, and by implementing them, we can save lives. 

“Addressing the root of the issue also means ensuring we are creating a province where people’s basic needs are met – stable housing, adequate food, accessible social services, and supportive communities. This is harm reduction at its core.”

Quotes:

Leslie McBain, Co-founder Moms Stop the Harm

“We know that the people who use drugs here in British Columbia and across the world span the spectrum of socioeconomic, racial, and health status. Yes, addiction and drug use involves the people who are visible and are extra vulnerable because they’re unhoused, but we also know that the majority of the population who are addicted or use toxic street drugs, do so within their homes, have jobs and families. All British Columbians must have access to all treatments, and all manner of healthcare pathways that work for them. Addiction must be understood and treated like all other health related disorders – with accessible science-based treatment and compassion. Because the toxic street drugs cause injury and death, a regulated pharmaceutical supply must be available to those in addiction until treatment is available to them.”

Tyson Singh Kelsall, registered BC Social Worker & PhD candidate in Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Health Sciences

“We are in a political moment where more than 15,000 people’s deaths and other endless violence occurring under a formal, provincial public health emergency is used liberally by parties as electoral theatre. The BC Greens are so far the only party in the legislature to take our emergency seriously, rather than use our lost ones only as political fodder. We know that the only evaluated compassion club model has been the single most effective intervention into the crisis to date. BC Greens support for demedicalized models as recommended by the 2023 Death Review Panel to stop the deaths, the expansion of overdose prevention services, oversight over treatment services, local manufacturing of opioids that divests from the international drug war, and striking down Bill 34 is political bravery in a moment of otherwise total abandonment from others who fill the legislature aisles.”

Lisa Lapointe, former Chief Coroner for the Province of British Columbia

“These heart-breaking losses will continue until we respond with an urgent, comprehensive, plan that is grounded in evidence. The BC Green Party’s proposed drug policy reflects that plan. It is a thoughtful, people-first policy that reflects the knowledgeable advice of healthcare professionals and experts, and recognizes the critical need for evidence and evaluation. It is unfathomable that, in the ninth year of this public health emergency, there are still no evidence-based provincial treatment standards. 

Similarly, there are no regulations requiring that treatment outcomes be reported. Estimates are that 225,000 people in BC are accessing drugs from the illicit market. All of these people are at risk of imminent harm. Given the magnitude of this public health emergency, evidence-based treatment is essential, along with a range of evidence-grounded, health-focused responses. The BC Green Party’s health-focused drug policy, with its emphasis on evidence, evaluation and collaboration, is a plan that will finally approach this public health emergency with the care and attention it demands.”

Quick facts:

• More than 15,000 British Columbians have died since April 2016 – when the toxic drug crisis was declared a public health emergency.

• Drug poisoning is the leading cause of death for people aged 10-59 in BC, accounting for more deaths than homicides, suicides, car crashes, and natural disease combined.

• From 2019 to 2023, 126 children and youth lost their lives to unregulated drugs. ⅔ of these youth had a mental health diagnosis or were displaying evidence of one. 

• Since the beginning of 2020, fentanyl has been detected in no less than 80% of all tested substances in our province. Benzodiazepines and other tranquilizers have once again transformed the supply – benzodiazepines are increasing in concentration in the street supply, and are tied to 42% of toxic drug deaths in BC.

• Just as prohibition in the 1920s led to the increased potency of alcohol, the war on drugs continues to drive up ever-increasing levels of toxicity in street substances. To avoid and evade shifting law enforcement strategies, the drug supply is systematically changing, unpredictable, and contains wide-ranging cutting agents.
• It has been nearly a decade since fentanyl replaced heroin as the primary street opioid available in BC. Fentanyl, a word that North Americans have become far too familiar with, is estimated to be 20-40 times more potent than heroin, and 100 times more potent than morphine. Those on the supply side of the illicit drug market are incentivized to cut drugs with stronger and more lethal substances both to generate higher profit and avoid law enforcement seizures.
• A benzodiazepine poisoning cannot be reversed with naloxone, and the side-effects are much more prolonged. For those who become physically dependent on benzodiazepines, withdrawal can lead to serious harm and death.
• It is estimated that less than 2% of containers at Canadian ports are imaged, and less than 1% are physically searched. This gap in inspection is exploited by organized crime groups to smuggle chemical precursors into B.C., which are then used to produce synthetic drugs like fentanyl.

Backgrounder attached

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Media contact: 

newsroom@greenparty.bc.ca 
Phone: +1 250-418-5528