British Columbia group wants regulated heroin to be sold to drug addicts to fight overdose

A report released today by the British Columbia Center for Addiction (BCCSU) asks the province to establish heroin compbadion clubs to reduce the number of fentanyl-related deaths. and the impacts of global organized crime.

"Closely Regulated Heroin Compbadion Clubs Could Significantly Reduce the Number of Fentanyl Overdose Deaths Attributable to Organized Crime in the Illicit Heroin Market," BCCSU said in a statement.

The report, entitled Heroin Compbadion Clubs: A Cooperative Model to Reduce the Number of Opioid Overdose Deaths and Disrupt the Role of Organized Crime in Fentanyl, Money Laundering and Unsustainable Housing, was written by a team of researchers in medicine and public health.

The report states that, while substance abuse and harm reduction interventions are a "critical element" of public response to substance abuse and addiction, "these interventions do not address the structural factors that led to the poisoning of the drug supply (for example, profit-making organized crime) and related health and safety concerns.

"Similarly, harm reduction, drug treatment and recovery services, even if sufficiently extensive, will have a limited impact on reducing the unintended direct effects of drug prohibition resulting from the profits of organized crime on the Internet. illegal market. "

The BCCSU highlights several disadvantages of the heroin prohibition, including:

• More violence, crime, disease, corruption and death than would be the case with a regulated system focused on public health
• Organized and endemic organized crime, illegal markets, corruption, criminal organizations that generate crime, injuries and violent deaths
• Deterioration of public health systems when criminalization and suppression activities push drug users away from prevention and treatment services and introduce them into environments where the risk of harm (for example, overdose) is increased

BCCSU proposes that heroin compbadion clubs be inspired by cannabis compbadion clubs and buy clubs that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s in response to the AIDS epidemic.

Heroin Compbadion Clubs would function as a cooperative that would give members access to legal and pharmaceutical grade heroin.

"The evidence clearly demonstrates that supply-reduction strategies – which aim to reduce the availability of heroin and, in turn, drive up drug prices to ultimately reduce demand – have failed", indicates the report.

BCCSU says heroin compbadion club model:

• Provide a much safer alternative to the market for adulterated illicit heroin with fentanyl, which is the leading factor in opioid death by providing a known standardized dosage
• Smash the huge profits of organized crime groups that flood the local real estate market and help make housing unaffordable in the province
• Provide facilitated access to public health, free drug treatment and referral to recovery services through co-location with proposed compbadion clubs
• Allow revenues generated by a cooperative purchasing model to be redirected internally to provide access and support to people without financial means
• Prevent opioid addiction by seeking to limit heroin access to people using fentanyl

According to the BCCSU, nearly 1,500 fatal overdoses occurred each year in 2017 and 2018, mainly due to fentanyl contamination.

"As a result, for the first time in the province's history, average life expectancy is decreasing."

The full report can be read here.

DH Vancouver Staff

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