Global News Jan. 24, 2023
Excerpts from Global News and other public sources below.
Critics are raising concerns that drugs from Vancouver’s groundbreaking safe-supply narcotic vending machines could be ending up in the hands of youth.
The MySafe machines dispense hydromorphone, a medical-grade opioid, (whose company gets a 3.5 million annual contract from the federal government.See photo below. View the source link.)
But some people working in the recovery sector say kids aged 16 and 17 are getting their hands on the product coming out of the machines.
“Their friends.. are accessing safe supply because they want to use it recreationally…” Jessica Cooksey, director of operations with the Last Door Recovery Centre, said.
“They’ve specifically mentioned taking transit downtown and purchasing.”
The process is what academics call “diversion.”
People with prescriptions to get the safe-supply drugs from the machines then sell them for cash, often to buy other drugs, food or necessities.
Dr. Somers points out:
Dr. Mark Tyndall, an investor who represents MySafe Society dispensing these drugs, wrote in the Globe and Mail recently that no one is harmed by pharmaceutical-grade drugs! When diverted drugs cause the deaths of young people we must remember who’s medically liable.
