NDP Government Rejects Provincial Health Officer’s Call for Expanded Access to Hard Drugs

The provincial health officer must have known this week that her call for expanded access to hard drugs without a prescription would be a non-starter with the NDP government.

Premier David Eby had already ruled out easier access to the so-called safer supply drugs as a response to the crisis in toxic drug overdoses.

There was also what happened last November. Then-coroner Lisa Lapointe released the report of an expert panel calling for the province to alleviate the toxic drug crisis by dispensing hard drugs without a prescription.

The New Democrats were so put off by the recommendation, they issued a rejection before the news conference where Lapointe released the report.

Lapointe learned about the government response from one of the reporters covering her announcement. “I haven’t seen that, so I can’t talk about the specifics of it,” said the chief coroner, thoroughly blindsided.

Dr. Bonnie Henry, like Lapointe, drew on her own authority and the expertise set out in an 88-page report to bolster her call Thursday for non-prescription access to unregulated drugs — “also known as safer supply.”

Then the big but: “However this is a topic we do not agree on. The province will not go in the direction of compassion clubs and other non-medical models for distributing medications.”

Given the calls for her head from the B.C. Conservatives, Henry acknowledged that her days might be numbered in the post.

Listening to her Thursday, I was struck that we might be witnessing the final phase of her time as provincial health officer.

And in this case, the New Democrats recognized that there is little enough public support for the combination of decriminalization, open drug use and access to hard drugs on even the current limited basis.

Well, it was the same Henry who spoke out this week on the toxic drug crisis and her recommended remedy was no less based on her authority and expertise than what she’d said and done during the pandemic.

Even a re-elected NDP government might not be all that disappointed were Henry to parlay her record and credentials into a posting elsewhere.