The Surrey Union of Drug Users (SUDU) says the B.C. Ministry of Health's recent decision surrounding access to safe supply will cost people's lives. 

"They are making access to life-saving medication inaccessible and therefore perpetuating state violence," H said. 

H is a university student, health-care promotion educator and SUDU volunteer, who requested a pseudonym for anonymity for fear of retribution from their employer. 

B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne Wednesday announced what the government calls additional safeguards to its prescribed pharmaceutical-alternatives program, effective immediately.

Patients will now have to travel to a pharmacy to take their medication in front of a health-care worker.

"We know that these approaches push people further away from safety and into harm. It's violent and irresponsible and, quite frankly, an impulsive response to moral panic," H said. 

H pointed out that people often have to take these prescribed alternatives three to four times a day, which means multiple steps that have to go into that 91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ” including taking transit or driving to the pharmacy while also going through withdrawal. 

"This is only going to force people to rely on unsafe sources for their supply," H said.

H takes a prescribed alternative three times a day and knows others who take it a lot more. For instance, in the morning, many will be going through withdrawal, which H describes as the worst flu of your life, where you are sweating and shaking and having to take transit to take your medication. 

"That's just not a quality of life that anybody should have to live, and it's not sustainable, and people will end up dying," H said. "When you're in that much withdrawal, you're not going to be willing to jump on a bus and being dope-sick and sweating and all those symptoms, to do that multiple times a day."

H says she lives within what society deems the "acceptable parameters of the social standards." 

"I'm a part-time university student, I have kids, and I live what people would call a normal life, but I'm not more valuable than my kin and my community members who are unhoused, who have more barriers than I do," H said. 

"I wish to see a world one day where people are not disposable, where their bodies aren't controlled, and where their dignity is at the centre. We're here in this ugly place where people are becoming more and more disposable in the eyes of society, and that is unacceptable," she said. 

The health minister made the announcement with Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Garry Begg in Victoria Wednesday (Feb. 19), adding that the change will apply to new and existing participants, with a transition period for existing participants. 

Osborne acknowledged a witness-only model will be a difficult change for some, requiring work clinicians and care providers to ensure a transition.

"But it is an important part of that work to balance the need to care for and legally save lives by using prescribed alternatives that prevent having those people who are at the highest risk of drug overdose from having to use illicit street drugs and ensuring that these drugs are not being diverted and that they are not going in the wrong hands," she said.

The development comes after the Conservative Party of B.C. released a Ministry of Health presentation titled the State of PharmaCare, which was given to 250 RCMP officers. The party said last month the presentation confirms a "worst-case scenario" about pharmaceutical alternatives to opioids being "trafficked provincially, nationally and internationally," as per the report. 

H said diversion would not happen if people's needs were met. "I think that whether it's happening or not, diversion wouldn't happen if people got what they needed." 

"Hydromorphone has never cut it for people who are dependent on fentanyl. So, if people are getting a fraction of what they need to have the bare minimum of their biological needs met, then it's not going to work, so if people were getting exactly what they needed, they wouldn't divert," she said. 

To add to that, the toxic drug supply that is currently circulating with medetomidine and various benzodiazepines "that aren't even approved on humans are far more harmful," she said. 

2,252 people lost their lives to toxic drugs in B.C. in 2024

Since the public health emergency was first declared in April 2016, over 16,047 have lost their lives in B.C. due to unregulated toxic drugs, the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General 

"Bearing witness to 10 years of a toxic supply crisis and losing countless loved ones, it's time to get sensible," H said, adding the solution is much easier than politicians say it is. 

"When we think of what is required to be well, that is financial security, adequate housing, community belonging, being treated like a human by the system," H said.

"With people who use drugs having access to a regulated supply, that is what is required for wellness.

"We clutch our pearls when it comes to one substance and we accept the other, which is alcohol."

In January 2023, the that focuses on a continuum of risk as it relates to alcohol consumption.

The advice updates Canada91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™s guidelines set in 2011, when two drinks a day were considered low risk and it was believed that women could safely consume up to 10 drinks a week and men could have 15. Now, up to two drinks a week are part of the low-risk zone and the focus is on a continuum of risk associated with weekly alcohol consumption. The notes that health risks increase more quickly at seven or more drinks per week for females.

"Zero drinks allowed in terms of what is acceptable for Health Canada, but nobody's going to stop drinking because of it, and alcohol is safer because it's legal," H said. "So it really boils down to the regulation and the legality of it." 

So, for people who use substances, H said the same thinking should be followed to reduce harm. "The evidence shows overwhelming support of safer supply initiatives, financial security, vocation support, community belonging and adequate housing."

-With files from Wolf Depner