The Conservatives have slammed the NDP-Liberals following revelations that a "significant portion" of "safe supply" drugs were finding their way into the wrong hands.
A leaked BC Ministry of Health audit presentation showed that many drugs were instead being trafficked not just across British Columbia, but throughout Canada and internationally as well.
"The NDP-Liberals' taxpayer-funded hard drugs experiment has been a disaster," the Conservatives wrote in a press release, citing the reports. "Despite Common Sense Conservatives ringing the alarm, the radical Liberal government and their NDP allies refused to listen."
The party pointed to Liberal Mental Health Minister Ya'ara Saks, who said there was "currently no evidence to support a widespread diversion of safer supply drugs," accusing her of lying.
According to the document in question, obtained by the BC Conservative caucus, pharmacists and doctors in the province prescribed 22,418,000 doses of opioids to around 5,000 patients in the province. That's an average of 4,483 per person.
Hydromorphone accounted for 19%, while fentanyl patches, oxycodone, dextroamphetamine sulfate, and morphone sulfate came in at 13%, 7%, 2%, and 1%, respectively.
A "significant portion" of the drugs in question were "not being consumed by their intended recipients." Instead, "prescribed alternatives are trafficked provincially, nationally and internationally."
The Conservatives noted that in Ontario, hydromorphone seizures by the Waterloo Regional Police Service and Niagara Regional Police Service rose by 1,090% and 1,577%, respectively.
"Since 2016, 49,000 Canadians have died of opioid overdoses, representing a 200 percent increase in yearly deaths," the party lamented. "The NDP-Liberal Government must finally accept that their taxpayer-funded hard drugs experiment has failed."
During a press conference in Vancouver on Wednesday, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre vowed to crack down on drugs in Canada and ensure that "not one more mother has to bury her face in her hands upon learning that her son died of an overdose in a back alley somewhere."