WATCH: New doc shines light on deadly impact of diverted 'safe supply' drugs in BC

A new documentary has been released to draw attention to the deadly impact of diverted "safe supply" drugs in British Columbia.Government Heroin 2: The Invisible Girls is the second installment in journalist and filmmaker Adam Zivo's series on the drug crisis..The documentary zeros in on the story of 14-year-old Kamilah Sword, a Port Coquitlam girl who died in 2022 after developing an addiction fuelled by diverted "safe supply" drugs. She and her friends got hooked on illicit substances others had acquired via the "safe supply" program and then sold to unsuspecting young people. In Sword's case, it was hydromorphone, a drug with the potency of heroin. The Dilaudid pills, known as "Dillies" on the street, were readily available and all too easy to obtain.While the drugs took Sword's life, her friends Amelie North and "Madison" made it to rehab and have since warned others about the dangers posed by the use of such substances. In the documentary, they, along with Sword's father Greg and North's mother Denise, urge ordinary citizens and elected officials alike to heed their warnings and advocate for an end to "safe supply.".BC teen involved in class action lawsuit against province and feds explains how 'safe supply' drugs end up in the wrong hands.In August 2024, Sword and Fenske filed a class-action lawsuit against the federal Liberals and BC NDP, accusing the governments of facilitating their children's addictions.The lawsuit claimed that Sword and North "relied on the negligent misrepresentations to begin consuming the Safe Supply Drugs, believing they were safe and they relied upon the negligent misrepresentations throughout the duration of their addictions.".Zivo, who wrote, edited, and directed the documentary, told the Western Standard that he was motivated to share the stories of Sword and her friends in order to give the public a better understanding of just how serious the crisis is."Many Canadians don't fully understand what's going on," he lamented. "They can read written words about diversion, but often time these stories are stripped of the personal details that really make this problem come to life."Zivo said the "visceral and emotionally-difficult" nature of the film was meant to truly show the human cost of these drug policies."I want Canadians to see the tears of a father who has lost his daughter to safer supply diversion, and to hear the weeping of a mother describing her daughter struggling with fentanyl addiction," he explained, "and I hope that by seeing and hearing these things, Canadians can get a better grasp of what's at stake."Zivo noted that far from being one-off anecdotes, Sword and North's stories were far too common examples of a widespread problem. He cited data from London, Ontario that revealed a 3,000% increase in hydromorphone seizures since 2019, and similarly striking numbers coming out of Niagara and Waterloo. He questioned why similar data was not being made publicly available by municipalities in BC, but suggested the ever-declining street price of hydromorphone in the province was evidence of how widespread the When asked whether he thought Premier David Eby's post-election promise to "do better" would extend to drug policy were the NDP to receive another term in government, Zivo said he was "doubtful.""He only began to take a different approach to the addiction crisis in the weeks and months leading up to the election," he noted, "which shows that this is not a genuine shift of perspective, it's motivated by political concerns."