Updated May 17, 2024 @ 4:04pm
The federal government should put a pin in approving new sites that supply safe opioids, Ontario Premier Doug Ford wrote in a letter to the prime minister, while also calling for a review of the Health Canada-approved sites across the country.
The requests come after the provincial health minister and solicitor general wrote to Toronto Public Health's top doctor, telling her to drop the city's application to decriminalize illegal drug possession for personal use.
Dr. Eileen de Villa defended the application and the chair of the city's board of health refused to drop it. They said they are trying to save lives and noted that safe supply is one tool that can help.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said Toronto would need provincial support for its decriminalization bid. Ford said he'd like safe supply sites to also require provincial buy-in.
"I’m now asking that you also extend the requirement for provincial support to 'safe supply' sites, which are approved solely and unilaterally by Health Canada," the premier wrote.
"Due to Health Canada’s siloed approval process, the province is completely in the dark about where these federally approved sites are operating and the quantity of controlled and illegal substances they dispense. This is frankly unacceptable."
The federal government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Health Canada lists 16 safe supply projects approved in Ontario – all but one, in Thunder Bay, Ont., are in southern Ontario.
"Safer supply services can help prevent overdoses, save lives, and connect people who use drugs to other health and social services," Health Canada says on its website.
Health professionals and advocates say pharmaceutical grade opioids, in the form of hydromorphone pills, are a safer alternative to street drugs.
Opioids have torn through the country over the past decade leaving thousands dead every year. Before that, prescription pills such as oxycodone and Percocets were widely used.
That changed about 10 years ago when synthetic fentanyl, largely created in clandestine labs in China, began hitting the west coast. The opioid crisis slowly spread east. Police in Ontario have noted a rise in homegrown fentanyl labs in recent years.
Ontario's chief coroner has found fentanyl in the vast majority of opioid overdose deaths, often found in a dangerous cocktail with benzodiazepines and, lately, with xylazine, a tranquillizer used by veterinarians on animals.
Ford, in his letter, pointed to British Columbia's experience with decriminalization as a reason for opposing safe supply.
The B.C. government recently received federal approval to recriminalize public drug possession, a major climb down for the first-of-its-kind decimalization pilot in Canada.
"An earlier review conducted by their provincial health officer also indicated that the diversion of controlled substances obtained at these facilities was a common occurrence, including to trade for more lethal and harmful drugs like fentanyl," Ford wrote.
"It also indicated that diversion is contributing to higher youth opioid use rates and has led to individuals in successful treatment services relapsing due to easy access."
The province's position on safe supply sites is at odds with Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore, who has called for expansion of safe supply as one tool to deal with the opioid crisis.
The Ford government is opposed to Moore's position.
Banner image: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford attend an announcement at Seneca College in King City, Ont., Friday, Feb. 9, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 17, 2024.
