Prescribed fentanyl helps this man manage his addiction. Experts want more access to safe supply – CBC

As thousands die of toxic drug supply each year, experts and drug users call for more harm reduction

Aug 31, 2023

For the past few years, David Keeler’s addiction has been treated like a medical issue.

“I’ve worked out [that] I can wake up in the morning without using, come to work until 5 o’clock at night and only use [drugs] once in the day when I get home,” said Keeler, an outreach worker at SOLID, a peer-based harm reduction organization in Victoria.

“That is due to the fact that I am a patient of the Safer Initiative, so I get doctor-prescribed fentanyl.”

He is one of a few dozen people in Victoria who has access, via a doctor’s referral, to a Health Canada-funded program that provides what’s known as safer supply, or pharmaceutical alternatives to the increasingly toxic street drug supply. Keeler said another safeguard is going to known suppliers and always getting substances checked at a drug-checking facility.

According to Keeler, and researchers in B.C. and Ontario who monitor illicit substances sold on the street by testing anonymous samples, trends have indicated that substances now have stronger concentrations of potent combinations, from fentanyl to animal sedatives, that create a more volatile and dangerous situation for people who use drugs.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/safe-supply-drug-checking-overdose-crisis-1.6952504