Opinion: A government that sought decriminalization of hard drugs four years ago seems to not have prepared for the consequences
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VICTORIA — The New Democrats were confronted this week with more unwelcome evidence of the shocking consequences of their decriminalization experiment on the province’s hospitals.
Nurses and other staff have been told not to stop open use of illicit drugs in hospital, according to a leaked memo from the Island Health region.
“It can be difficult for people who use substances not to use substances while in a facility,” the memo (described as a “resource document”) read in part. “Instead of requiring patients to stop using substances when they access care or services, a harm-reduction approach offers ways for care to be provided whilst meeting individual patient needs.”
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Other helpful advice included: “Offer supplies and ensure they are easily accessible. If patient has an IV, provide education on injecting into lines.”
When encountering a patient using an illicit substance, “assess immediate safety (overdose, flames, behavioural), if safe let patient finish, if unsafe take steps to address safety and acknowledge patient, then return in five minutes to assess and dialogue.”
The memo was introduced in the legislature by the B.C. United Opposition as a followup to the one they provided earlier this month from the Northern Health Region. That memo told staff they could not take illicit drugs away from patients, prevent their usage, or seize drugs from visitors.
The New Democrats tried to discredit it as out of date and applied to one hospital in one region. They also claimed it was “poorly phrased,” suggesting it could have benefited from the obfuscating touch of the NDP’s messaging wizards.
But the Island Health memo, dated March 14, further substantiates that the practice of turning a blind eye to illicit drugs in hospitals is widespread and continuing.
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It drew a scornful blast from Nurses Union president Adriane Gear.
“The memo talks about how to provide patient-centred care,” she told Richard Zussman of Global TV. “What it lacks is any direction around how to keep nurses safe, and it implies that open, unfettered consumption of illicit substances is permitted within health care spaces.”
Health Minister Adrian Dix responded to the latest memo during question period in the legislature. It was not his finest hour.
“Let me be clear to everybody. Nobody should have to face second-hand smoke in our hospitals. That’s not allowed. It won’t be allowed. It isn’t allowed,” declared Dix, disregarding widespread evidence that the rule is ignored on a regular basis.
The health minister has appointed a task force to standardize rules and procedures regarding illicit drug use in the hospitals. The goal is a policy to protect patients, staff and drug users alike.
“There will be one policy across B.C. that lays out the expectations for everyone involved very clearly,” the health minister vowed. “Members of the house and others in B.C. will see that policy soon.”
Four years have passed since the New Democrats promised to fast track decriminalization in their election platform. Two years ago, the federal government granted the exemption that allowed decriminalization to proceed.
The experiment itself has been underway for 15 months.
Only now is Dix getting around to addressing the implications for those most vulnerable of institutions, the province’s hospitals. Hard to believe to that this is the same minister who had such command of the situation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Did he really not see this coming? Or was he simply following the re-election agenda of a premier who has little of his predecessor’s knack for delegation?
Eby himself was blindsided by another development regarding the government’s harm-reduction policy, when the Opposition called for the release of a report assessing the safer supply and prescription opioid program.
The premier told reporters the first he’d heard of such a report was when the Opposition brought it up in question period.
His staff discovered there was indeed such a report and that it had been commissioned by the provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry.
“She is our independent public health officer,” the premier reminded reporters on Tuesday. “It is within her remit to commission these kinds of papers.”
He paused to acknowledge how Henry’s independence came in handy in managing the COVID-19 pandemic.
The New Democrats often sheltered behind her edicts regarding the events that could not be staged, the businesses that had to close and the schools that would remain open.
Now, however “there are occasionally moments of frustration, like yesterday, when the officer is doing work that we’re not aware of,” said Eby.
As for calls to release the report, Eby said don’t ask him.
“Dr. Henry commissioned this paper and for any sort of reasons why she commissioned it, what the intent was, and where her work is going, I would direct that to Dr. Henry.”
The comment was another reminder of how far we’ve come since the depths of the pandemic, when the New Democrats accorded Henry the status of a secular saint, beyond criticism.
Now she’s reduced to a source of frustration for a controlling premier bent on minimizing the fallout from his harm reduction strategy in an election year.
vpalmer@postmedia.com
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