Dr. Sereda, convince me.
I like Gord Johns over there. He's a very passionate guy. He has a lot of good ideas.
My daughter actually works in the homeless community in Vancouver and she's a big advocate for safe supply. She's having trouble with dad. I'm not just a politician. I've worked in acute care medicine for almost 40 years, including 20 years in a Thunder Bay emergency room, which sees its fair share of overdoses.
We've heard anecdotes on both sides here, but I'd like you to comment on the recently released JAMA internal medicine study from January 2024, “British Columbia's Safer Opioid Supply Policy and Opioid Outcomes”, where they found that after B.C. instituted safe supply, “the opioid-related poisoning hospitalization rate increased by 3.2 per 100 000”, which was statistically significant, with a P value of .01. Deaths from opioid toxicity didn't increase significantly. They did increase, and the P value was .26.
The authors of the paper, as they're commenting on why these numbers went up, ask:
What could explain the higher hospitalization rate after the policy's implementation? One potential reason is that participants in British Columbia's Safer Opioid Supply policy program diverted safer opioid supply for various reasons, including to purchase unregulated fentanyl. It is also possible that a higher supply of prescription opioids led to an increase in prescription opioid misuse, which in turn, could increase hospitalization risks.
It doesn't look real positive for safe supply. Can I have your comments with respect to that article?