Vancouver councillor Swanson hands out ‘safe supply’ of meth, heroin, and cocaine

Those who gathered were protesting the “Vancouver model” of drug decriminalization and lack of “safe supply.”

British Columbia had more than 1,700 fatal drug overdoses in 2020 —near double the number in 2019 — making it the most deadly year for fatal drug overdoses in BC’s history. More than 80% of the overdoses involved the synthetic opioid fentanyl.

The opioid overdose crisis was declared a public health emergency in BC in 2016.

“I got to hand out safe drugs today with VANDU And DULF,” Swanson posted on Twitter, captioning a photo of herself handing out a 3.5g box of heroin.

“Six deaths a day from poison drugs is way too many. One is too many. Safe supply now!”

According to DULF, the drugs handed out cost roughly $3,000.

The idea is to protect addicts from contaminated drugs by providing a “safe supply.”

DULF claims the supplied drugs have been tested by FTIR spectrometry and immunoassay, and are free of fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, benzodiazepines, and many other harmful adulterants.

Members of DULF say that measures were in place to ensure that no minors received any drugs.

“The purpose of this action is to raise awareness of the deeply flawed aspects of the Vancouver Model of decriminalization, including disproportionate influence of the Vancouver Police Department, unreasonably low drug thresholds, and lack of provisions for safe supply,” writes DULF in a release.

“The proposed model risks causing significant harm to people who use drugs, especially those at intersecting marginalized social locations, such as people experiencing homelessness, BIPOC, and those from the LGBTQ2S* community.”

The “Q” stands for questioning. The “2S” acronyms stand for two-spirit. It is unclear what the asterisk represents. It is also unclear what data is used to determine how those who identify as questioning, two-spirit, or the group represented by the asterisk, are disproportionately dying of drug overdoses.

What is clear is a lot of human beings are dying of drug overdoses.

DULF says they reject Vancouver’s proposed model for the following three reasons:

• The proposed threshold limits in the Vancouver Model are dangerously low and don’t conform with actual patterns of drug use.
• The lack of an exemption for community-led compassion clubs for the distribution of safe supply.
• The exclusion of drug users from meaningful participation in the development of drug policy.

“Step up and address the issues that are killing us or allow us the legal sanctioning to do it ourselves, outside of the constraints of this discriminatory structure,” writes DULF.

Several critical voices have spoken out in response to Jean Swanson’s recent stunt.

“This is a person that’s not only supposed to make laws, but to uphold them. Instead, she’s openly dealing crystal meth, and she’s doing so without any legal consequences whatsoever,” said independent journalist Aaron Gunn, who’s looking to become BC’s Liberal leader.

“It’s all part of a trend here in British Columbia to implement the most laissez-faire drug policies in all of North America. The results of which have been staggering,” he said.

“We have a very serious problem that requires a thoughtful and compassionate solution, but that solution is not to just hand out crystal meth like it was candy.”

Despite local and global policing efforts, the black market drug trade continues to thrive with no signs of slowing down.

Reid Small is a BC correspondent for the Western Standard

rsmall@westernstandardonline.com