An all-party committee tasked with looking in to drug toxicity and the ongoing overdose crisis in B.C. has made 37 recommendations to government, including a substantial increase in publicly funded, evidence-based, and accredited treatment and recovery beds and outpatient services.
The committee, chaired by NDP MLA Niki Sharma, put together the recommendations after hearing from 118 presenters and reading through more than 880 written submissions.
“We heard that some British Columbians are not able to access lifesaving supports and services, either because they aren’t available in their community or because of other barriers,” Sharma said.
“The committee’s report makes recommendations to further scale up government’s response to ensure that all British Columbians can access high-quality substance use support and care when they need it.”
The B.C. Coroners Service reported in August that at least 1,468 people had died of toxic illicit drugs in 2022.
The province has been under a state of public health emergency since 2016 over drug deaths, which has grown worse due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The committee is also recommending rapidly scaling up a flexible, evidence-based, low-barrier, comprehensive continuum of care. This would include housing, employment and income, and mental health supports with defined goals and metrics.
An increase in funding for an expanded affordable and accessible continuum of housing options and funding for trauma-informed mental health care that is integrated into the primary health care system is also recommended in the report.
With different resources available in different parts of the province, the committee is also calling for B.C.-wide standardized harm-reduction services, including overdose-prevention and drug-checking services.
Ensuring ready access to take-home naloxone kits for all individuals, with a focus on distribution to high risk populations, particularly those working in the trades, is also recommended.
The provincial government says it is currently doing the work to address the recommendations in the report.
“The recommendations from the Special Committee on Health on the illicit drug toxicity and overdose crisis reaffirm the tools our government is using to tackle the public-health emergency in British Columbia,” Mental Health and Addictions Minister Sheila Malcolmson said Tuesday.
“As the illicit drug supply gets increasingly more toxic, we face a rising tide of need in British Columbia. There is more to do to tackle this public-health emergency.”
BC Green Leader Sonia Furstenau, who was a member of the committee, said the report’s recommendations do not go as far as she had hoped.
Furstenau said it was clear from presenters that safe supply can work and the province needs to help support a current lack of prescribers, and those with prescriptions who are forced to line up every day for their supply.
“The most important question to ask is, how do we stop people from dying?” Furstenau said.
“While there is a need for scaling up mental health supports and treatment for people who seek it, we are seeing every day that the illicit toxic supply is taking people’s lives before they can access those services.”
Additional recommendation in the report:
- Fund measures to ensure a prescribed safer supply of substances is available in all areas of the province
- Urgently fund a substantial increase in publicly funded, evidence-based, and accredited treatment and recovery beds and outpatient services
- Create a provincial system to collect data from treatment and recovery services to increase oversight
- Within six months of this report’s release, initiate a comprehensive review of the Mental Health Act that includes public input
- Work with the federal government and port authorities to develop innovative solutions to disrupt the supply of illicit toxic drugs being imported and produced domestically by international and domestic criminal organizations
- Fund Indigenous-led and Indigenous-designed, trauma-informed and culturally-appropriate services across the substance use continuum of care
- Urgently expand in-school prevention and education programs that include information on the risks of the toxic drug supply and are trauma informed, evidence based and standardized
- Ensure additional, designated personnel are available in hospital emergency rooms to provide referrals to harm reduction or treatment and recovery services for individuals who are at risk from the toxic drug supply
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