Health committee  That is definitely an alternative. This option should not just open new facilities, but integrate them with the services that are already there. Opening new facilities can be costly. If you integrate them with the services, you make it mainstream. Then people who leave a treatment can go to another if they are ready to switch from injectable to oral medications.

Health committee  Following on what you're saying, we need to have all of the options open for people. If I was a person struggling with drugs, we don't know where I would be today or in 10 years. It's not a death sentence, but it has been demonstrated that treatments based on not using any substance—so-called “abstinence-based” treatments—have a success rate of only 5%.

Health committee  I will allow Sarah to speak first.

Health committee  The first thing is there is evidence that the so-called “experiment” did save lives. The BCCDC published in the British Medical Journal that it saved lives. If we are going to dissent, let's dissent with the truth. It is totally fair to dissent, but let's dissent with the truth so we can build, not going backwards.

Health committee  Thank you. Sorry, I didn't know I was out of time.

Health committee  Thank you so much and I'm very sorry for the circumstances in your area. The first thing, as I was saying, is collaboration is key. There is nothing that will come from the top that can work unless we work with the community, unless we understand the values of the community and not just come in and say, take this, do this, without knowing if this community is ready and is going to accept.

Health committee  When we work with the prescribers and they want to do person-centred care, they know that certain clients require an opiate medication that they cannot prescribe because it's not indicated for opioid use. In downtown Vancouver you are going to be an advocacy group and you are going to be able to prescribe off-label, but in other places, you don't have that support.

Health committee  Yes, that's correct.

Health committee  First of all, the study, as you said, was injectable. We do hope that people who are ready for it can take the doses with them in the cases that are indicated by the prescriber in a conversation with the physician. There was always the intention that as clients evolve, the treatment will evolve with them.

Health committee  No, we didn't. We had a trial, and the trial ended. We did show that for our participants injectable was more effective than oral.

Health committee  First, the diversion that is shown is so minimal that the scientific perspective is expected for the number of people. In a big scope, there is a very small percentage of people who are struggling with opioid use disorder and who are getting the Dilaudid pills. Then possibly the number of people who might be sharing or selling the medication because that's not the medication for them, because we have few options, is a number that is expected.

Health committee  It's expected.

Health committee  Thank you very much. I will try to speak slowly as sometimes my accent might not be the best for the translators, so I apologize for that. Thank you so much for having me. My name is Eugenia Oviedo-Joekes. I am a Latina woman. I am today speaking from the beautiful unceded territory for the Squamish people, people of the water.