Guest post: Safe supply increases the safety of frontline workers

And vibes-based police releases

If you’ve read the newsletter this week, you’ll know Prince George RCMP kicked off a whole thing with a press release saying they are seeing an “alarming trend” of drugs intended for safe supply winding up in the hands of criminals that has been used by the federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, the premier of Alberta Danielle Smith, B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad and B.C. United leader Kevin Falcon — all people who do or soon could shape actual policy — to say they would alter or scrap the program altogether. It is, arguably, the single most influential press release to come out of this city in several years, despite the provincial RCMP quickly clarifying that there is "currently no evidence to support" the notion that this is a widespread problem. So I was interested to listen to RCMP Supt. Shaun Wright when he was on CBC Daybreak North yesterday and asked why his message is different from that of his provincial counterparts. Here’s the transcript:

Q. Prince George RCMP have said that they found more than 10,000 individual pills in two separate drug busts. How were they able to identify safe supply pills among the others?

A. Uh, yeah, I can’t get into a lot of the specifics as to how we’ve tracked a lot of that down because those are still open investigations but a lot of those prescription pills appear to be from that supply system.

Can you give a specific number as to how many of those pills were safe supply from the 10,000.

You know what, I would say a significant proportion but at this point I wouldn’t want to give you an exact number but it would be substantial — potentially half.

Ok, and it’s been confirmed through testing I presume?

Uh, that is still ongoing so I don’t have any definitive facts for exact numbers at this point. Obviously it’s a fresh investigation that just occurred here over the past couple of weeks so there’s still further investigation to be done.

“Appear to be….” “Potentially...” “Still ongoing so I don’t have any definitive facts…” are words and phrases that jump out. None of them were present in the original RCMP release nor the follow-up statements from local police. It is striking that upon being asked for more details/facts, what was presented/received as definitively a growing issue of large amounts of diverted safe supply winding up in the hands of gangs has turned into something where testing and confirmation is “still ongoing.” And I’m not sure these could be classified as surprising questions given that the B.C. RCMP are among those who have called the Prince George RCMP’s characterization of the problem into question.

Asked about the seeming contradiction between the message coming from B.C. RCMP assistant commissioner John Brewer and his own messaging, Wright answered:

“I can only comment on what I’ve seen in the local community here in Prince George. We are seeing an increase of seizures of prescription pills here locally over the last year. So what we’re doing now is we’re really educating our frontline officers to better identify when there’s potential diversion from safer supply and we’re tracking that moving forward and we’re undertaking further investigative efforts to actually trace the source to confirm exactly how prevalent that trend is.”

Another pause here to note he says efforts are underway so police can track the diversion of safe supply moving forward. Which is notable when you again refer back to the initial release about the “alarming trend” which we now learn may in fact exist but based on what was said here and at Monday night’s council meeting appears to be a little more vibes-based than backed up by actual data, even locally. Back to the interview:

Why differentiate between safe supply drugs and other prescription drugs that are being seized?

I think it was just an important point for the public to understand, potentially, where the source of these drugs is coming from. Obviously, all prescription drugs are not going to be diverted from safe supply but it is an increasing trend and over the years, over the decades, we see differences in where the source of illicit drugs come from and so we follow our investigations and as those trends change over time we focus our enforcement efforts there. Basically that was just a trend that we are seeing here lately, over the last, definitely year, but over the last several months with some of the seizures we’ve had.

Again, “potentially” and also the new information that this “trend” is something that has developed in the past several months. So maybe a trend, though I do notice that the police haven’t put out releases on a “trend” of targeted killings happening in the from January through March, even though that’s a pattern that’s happened in this city for the past three years — because we have to be cautious that we don’t mistake something that could be a coincidence for something imbued with meaning that shapes policy. I don’t doubt the police are noticing something could be happening around diverted safer supply (no one I’ve seen has argued this is something that doesn’t happen) and it make sense to start tracking it to see if we can learn anything from it. I also don’t know whether the intention of the release sent out last week was to shape the policy debate around safer suppl, but it is, despite the fact that upon closer inspection the release appears to be built on early educated cases moreso than actual information, all from a single police force. It has been picked up by many, many people across the country who want to argue for an end to the safer supply program, though admittedly much of the most strident voices on this have already made up their mind which is why they’ve picked up on what the PG RCMP have to say and not the B.C. RCMP overall, but here we are either way.

With all that said, here is somebody else who has noticed some things about the consequences of introducing safer supply, but she’s coming at it from a different vantage point. Rikki Holland is a lifelong resident of Prince George who was a frontline shelter worker in the city as recently as last fall. She shared a letter with me that she wrote to one of our local MPs, who has also used the above as cause to call for the end of safer supply, and agreed to have it shared below.

Safer supply increases the safety of frontline workers

Letter to an MP, by Rikki Holland

We live in a world that is highly reactive, full of misinformation, and primed to disagree. I was hoping, as one of the people with whom you politically represent, you could take a moment of your time to read my professional experience with Safe Supply narcotics as a frontline shelter worker. I hope that you can use this information to help frame your understanding of Safe Supply in this province, alongside your other avenues of information (such as the RCMP).

As a frontline shelter worker, I was no stranger to the impacts of Fentanyl use, especially modern day Fentanyl, which is usually cut with a benzo, unpredictably increasing the sedative effects of the drug. I have worked with women who were incredibly unstable, erratic, and painfully sick due to the effects of these drugs. I cannot stress enough the difficulty in working with populations that are using these drugs. Detox has wait times, and often even people who desperately want to be sober have to dip back into this toxic supply due to withdrawals when they can’t get into detox fast enough. Many are so unstable and foggy on these drugs that they cannot even make the decision to go to detox or get clean.

I have also worked with many women who have accessed a variety of safe supply substances, and the difference to me was tangible. Women I worked with who were on hydromorphone, Methadone, Suboxone, were stable, calm, and clear thinking enough to plan their recovery. None of these drugs caused erratic behaviour, violence, or sickness like the street supply drugs did. The women I saw access safe supply were stable enough that they could plan for recovery, attend AA and NA meetings, apply for and receive housing, and even get sober. These things were all almost impossible under the effects of the benzo-fentanyl you can get on the street. And just to be clear, regular users cannot just stop taking fentanyl cold turkey—this is incredibly dangerous, if not fatal. Just to survive, a user needs to access the drug market, and the current drug market is so unpredictable that nobody can be stable enough to get clean. Safe supply narcotics create that stability that leads to life improvement, AND increases the safety of frontline workers interacting with populations who use drugs.

Cost-wise, the current street drug market causes countless expenses for the region, including medical, first responders, housing, welfare, etc. etc. The current system is costing millions. Safe supply medications are no more “free” than any other medication partially covered by pharmacare. I fully believe, based on my experience working with those who use safe supply, that continuing these programs will save millions of taxpayer dollars at the very least. I have seen the way that these medications stabilize people’s lives so that they aren’t accessing government services (like the ER, paramedics, RCMP) to nearly the same extent.

If you made it this far, and actually read my letter, it means the world to me. Even if you don’t agree, I appreciate you taking the time to take in a different perspective than the (often uninformed) fear tactics pushed by the RCMP and the media, who continue to push the narrative that such a small program is impacting addiction across the province. There are many things increasing addiction and homelessness every day: lack of affordable housing, trauma and isolation, untreated pain and disability, etc. However, I feel I can both confidently and accurately say that Safe supply is NOT one of these factors. I have never once encountered someone using safe supply who wasn’t using harder drugs first.

Thank you for your time.

Rikki Holland is a lifelong resident of Prince George who has worked as a frontline shelter worker.

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Whew, that was a week. It wasn’t my intention to make this a whole theme, just like it wasn’t with short-term rentals, but one way or another this is the conversation that seems to have dominated the city, or at least the corner I observe, this week.

Here’s a nice bird:

Here’s a picture I took downtown earlier this week:

Here’s some more birds:

It’s supposed to hit fourteen degrees today! Put on your sunscreen.

Time for the…

News roundup

• Cameron Stolz is officially in as the new owner of the Citizen. Neil Godbout is out as the editor, with good things to say about the paper’s direction. To start, it’s going to get bigger. Hopefully that means some new hires soon — I count two writers left on the payroll, with a third through the Local Journalism Initiative Fund.

• Carson Cleland’s father Ryan overjoyed with new legislation to protect kids.

• Northern BC home sales experience 41.5% year-over-year spike.

• The city of Prince George is asking the provincial government to help pay the cost of medical services provided by Prince George Fire Rescue first responders.

• Therapist and kickboxer creates inclusive space for martial arts (previously covered here).

• Barkerville Gold was fined over $1.4 milllion for repeatedly dumping underground waste into a nearby river.

• Communities engage in upcoming BC Hydro transmission upgrade project.

• See you at the movies.

• Today’s song: “Britta's marrying Jeffrey Winger”:

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