BC Rebrands Safer Supply, Pushes Ahead as ‘Landmark’ Study Scrutinized

Health officials in British Columbia are using language and messaging that casts a favourable light on the province’s safer supply approach to drug addiction. This includes moving away from the controversial “safer supply” wording to instead say the province is offering “prescribed alternatives to the toxic supply.” This change in wording was among the directions British Columbia’s chief medical officer Bonnie Henry gave in her report on safer supply programs published Feb. 1. She said the new wording “prescribed alternatives” associates the program more closely with the common clinical practice of prescribing medications for off-label use. Messaging from provincial officials consistently includes the words “toxic” and “unregulated” before any mention of drugs responsible for overdose or other harms. “Unregulated fentanyl” was to blame for new record-high overdoses announced on Jan. 24, Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe said in her report....