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Somebody may ACTUALLY be opening a heroin dispensary

One month ago today I wrote this crazy opinion piece asking why there weren't any heroin dispensaries in Vancouver.

One month ago today I wrote this crazy opinion piece asking why there weren't any heroin dispensaries in Vancouver. My angle was that while there are a lot of for-profit marijuana dispensaries there are also a number of charitable compassion clubs who exist solely to provide comfort (or "medicine", depending who you ask) to people with illnesses. Since I wrote it there have been over a hundred overdose deaths in BC, and the total numbers of deaths for 2016 were just released. Have a look at this grim visualization tweeted out by Andrea Woo of The Globe and Mail below.

The overdose deaths are not slowing down, and the local and national media coverage on this issue has been intense. It has become clear to many that the answer is to supply a safe space for addicts to do their drugs (check mark; this already happened) as well as making sure the supply of drugs they're taking isn't lethal. Yesterday Vancouver's chief medical officer recommended a new prescription heroin program. He's quoted in this Vancouver Sun article saying "We need to get past the stigma associated with this and recognize we have to replace it [illicit drugs] with a legal option”.

Governments at all levels have been scrambling (at various paces) trying to figure out what to do about it. But even the fastest "scrambling" in government is often akin to crawling at a snail's pace in comparison to the speed at which decisions are made in business, especially when it comes to approving something like providing citizens with a supply of illegal drugs. My intention is not to lay blame but to point out that when an effective solution to slow the pace of overdose deaths comes, it will be long overdue.

In the meantime...

I've heard rumblings that someone is poking around trying to figure out how to present a legal challenge that will essentially be the same as opening up a heroin dispensary. Part of it might even be opening up a physical space where fentanyl-free opioids are "prescribed", but not by doctors. WTF.

What seemed like a wild idea a few weeks ago is now being looked at as a possible approach to helping alleviate the crisis. It's insane that it's got to this point but it could end up being the straw that breaks the federal government's back - or forces all levels of government to work together to get clean heroin into the veins of the thousands of Canadians who are currently at risk of dying. If they don't we're going to be in an even worse place in a few months shaking our heads at hockey sticks on graphs, wondering who we should be pointing our fingers at.