Vancouver backs plan to get safe supply of cocaine, heroin and meth to drug users
The City of Vancouver gave its unanimous support to a new community-led program that would distribute a safe supply of drugs in the city’s Downtown Eastside (DTES).
In a motion on October 7, 2021, Coun. Jean Swanson called on city council to endorse the country’s first compassion club — a local buyer’s club providing prescription heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine to drug users at risk of overdose.
Legal exemption for safe supply
Swanson brought the pitch forward on behalf of the Drug User’s Liberation Front (DULF) and Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), who are asking the federal government for a legal exemption to run the compassion club without being arrested.
If approved, the group would create a fulfillment centre that tests and labels drugs from the illicit market and reintroduces them to drug users through registered buyer’s clubs.
“Our model is a consumer protection initiative that tests and labels drugs at no profit so consumers of drugs know exactly what they’re taking and how they’re dosing themselves,” said DULF co-founder Eris Nyx, speaking to council.
DULF believes their plan has a higher chance of success if backed by the local government.
The pitch has already received widespread support from Vancouver Coastal Health and the University of British Columbia, as well as 48 speakers who spoke to council, including drug users, advocates and frontline health workers in the DTES.
“The motion simply asks council to add our voice to this chorus. We owe it to the folks who are working so hard on the frontlines of death to show them that we support their work,” said Coun. Swanson.
DULF and VANDU are already known for giving small doses of tested drugs to users in Vancouver, purchased through illegal markets and the dark web — a red flag for some councilors.
“Inaction is unconscionable”
“Do you acknowledge that you are supporting organized crime with the illicit product that you’re purchasing?” Coun. Melissa de Genova asked DULF co-founders Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum.
“We’re not criminals. We have no interest in supporting organized crime. We want to be working with doctors and legitimate supply chains like Fair Price Pharma. But because of policy gaps, we do what we need to in order to save lives,” responded Nyx.
“Current policies of prohibition and criminalization aren’t working. The compassion club will save lives and in the meantime, inaction is unconscionable,” added Kalicum.
The debate caused Swanson to amend the motion, obligating DULF to obtain drugs from “a legal regulated source that does not come from organized crime”.
Opioid deaths at all-time high
The move comes amid the increasingly deadly opioid crisis. B.C. marked its second highest month of overdose deaths in July, with an average of six people dying per day. Indigenous people are disproportionately impacted.
The province has been breaking annual death records yearly since 2019 and is on-track for its highest death toll in 2021. As of July 2021, there were already 1,204 deaths due to drug toxicity, nearing the 1,724 total fatal overdoses recorded last year.
