Yes, Providing Drug Users With Safe Drugs Will Fight the Opioid Crisis
Vancouver is the latest city to sign up for a Safe Supply program, which provides safe drugs to users. Pilot programs — and the failure of the war on drugs — show that this approach is the best way to combat the opioid crisis.
A local church distributes food and clothes to residents in need near an area often used for heroin use. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
Canada is experiencing a drug poisoning crisis. Health Canada reports over 29,000 apparent opioid-related deaths between January 2016 and December 2021, alongside 30,806 hospitalizations from drug overdoses. The pandemic exacerbated the issue, driving up deaths by nearly 100 percent in its first year. In the US context, researcher Brenda Saloner notes social isolation, economic stress, and solo drug usage alongside an increasingly unsafe supply drove up overdose numbers. The same can be said of Canada.
Recognizing that prohibition and an unregulated supply of drugs is harming and killing people, Vancouver, British Columbia, is making a serious effort to reduce harm and save lives by providing a safe supply. It’s a model that ought to be applied throughout the country — and with a little sense from politicians in other provinces, will someday soon be implemented far and wide.
Making Criminals of Our Friends and Neighbors
“Government drugs” may strike the reader as an unusual way to address a drug crisis. But pushing beyond an initial, visceral, and uninformed response reveals the logic — and wisdom — of the approach. The goal of safe supply is to reduce harm, save lives, and give people who use drugs control of their lives. We cannot address the drug poisoning crisis without accepting the particularly powerful nature of opioids and the fact that keeping people from accessing a safe, regulated supply is killing them.
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