Sure. Thank you.
We've heard statements and anecdotes about diversion. However, in British Columbia, opioid use disorder incidents have remained constant since 2020, when the safer supply program was implemented. That is true for those under 19 and overall.
Moreover—I want to stress this again—hydromorphone was detected in just 3% of all overdose-related deaths in 2022, albeit as one component among a number of substances implicated in toxicology, rather than the primary drug implicated in the overdose.
However, fentanyl was implicated in over 80% of all overdose deaths and was most commonly the primary substance indicated in toxicology reports. Make no mistake: The overdose crisis in B.C. is driven by fentanyl and its increasingly potent analogues.