BC’s safer supply program update

Details of B.C.’s safer supply program are being released Thursday, with Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry speaking at a news conference in the early afternoon.

Henry, to be joined by Dr. Alexis Crabtree, BC Centre for Disease Control, and Dr. Alice Virani, Provincial Health Services Authority, will share findings from their review of the prescribed safer supply program.

The province’s prescribed safer supply program — which separates people who use drugs from the unregulated toxic drug supply — was expanded in 2021, and budgeted to run for three years. The first province was the first in Canada to introduce this public health program.

The update on the program comes after B.C. saw a record number of toxic drug deaths in 2023.

The BC Coroners Service says there were 2,511 suspected unregulated toxic drug deaths, marking “the highest number of suspected deaths ever recorded in a year.”

That figure is five per cent higher than the number of deaths recorded in 2022, which was 2,383.

Thursday’s news conference is slated to begin at 12:30 p.m.

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