Vancouver's chief medical officer recommends compassion club model to reduce illicit drug deaths

Vancouver's head doctor saidmore headway needs to be made on the opioid crisis in British Columbia and one way to stop people from dying sooner rather than later is to move toward a compassion club model for distributing safe drugs in the city.

Patricia Daly, the chief medical officer for Vancouver Coastal Health,made the recommendation to Vancouver City Council on Thursday during a presentation on the current illicit drug death situation.

Daly said she spoke to city policy makersto reiterate the province is still battling a public health emergency other than COVID-19 one that has killed 3,000 people between January 2020 and July 2021, comparedto 1,800 who died from the novel coronavirusin the same period.

"It was a reminder that we need to address this other public health crisis," said Daly, speaking Friday on CBC's The Early Edition.

She said while the city and the province have made some investments inaddiction treatment services since apublic health emergencywas declared in 2016,two critical pieces of the solution puzzle are missinga regulated legal source of drugs to replace the contaminated illegal drug supply, and more focus on preventing substance use disorder.

"We need one of the models that's been put forward by people with lived experiences, a compassion club model, and that's where I think we need to be moving now," said Daly.

Such a model would allow organizations like thethe Drug User Liberation Front(DULF) toopen a safe supply fulfilment centre and hand out cleantested drugs.

City hall in agreement

On this point, Daly and city hall agree.

Earlier this month,Vancouver City Councilvoted to support a federal application that would allow a compassion clubmodel and provide tested drugs in the city.

The application was put forward by DULF, which had previouslyhanded out tested drugsin front of the Vancouver Police Department.If the federal exemption is granted, DULF would work with organizations likeFair Price Pharmato obtain, test and packagelegally-sourced drugs before handing them out.

Daly said the decision to greenlight compassion club models must come from the federal government and she would like to see that happen.

"As long as the federal drug laws make these substances illegal, it is going to be very, very challenging to provide people with alternatives except through things like a prescription market," she said.

Quick implementation possible

Daly said while legalizing all substances is a major initiative that would take the federal government a "significant period of time," ifOttawagrants an exemption for a compassion club now, it could be operational right away and B.C. health officials could evaluate it as it goes.

"If we find that that it is of benefit we would certainly look for risks as well as benefits then it could be something that would mean much more easily scalable," she explained.

"The compassion club is something that we really need to keep talking about and supporting, and hopefullywe can implement as quickly as possible."

Daly saidthe other part of the puzzle, helping those in duress before they die,is crucial right now as a result of the pandemic, which she said hasresulted in serious mental health challenges for many young people.

"More substance use among people may actually drive problems in the future if we don't address this," said Daly.