New program sells regulated fentanyl to help prevent overdoses from illicit supply in Vancouver
British Columbia is approaching its sixth year of a public-health emergency declared in response to record-shattering drug deaths from an increasingly volatile drug supply
The Globe and Mail (Canada)
Thursday, April 7, 2022
Thursday, April 7, 2022
A Vancouver social services organization has launched a program to sell pharmaceutical-grade fentanyl to drug users who would otherwise purchase toxic, illicit substances from street dealers, a first-in-Canada model that straddles prescription-based safer supply and regulated drug sales. Under the PHS Community Services Society program, a person who would ordinarily buy illicit opioids – particularly dangerous because of their unknown potencies and additives – can instead purchase fentanyl powder capsules from one of the program’s clinical sites for the same price: $10 for a tenth of a gram, called a point.
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