{"id":270538,"date":"2022-09-15T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-15T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/issues\/funding-for-abstinence-based-programing-wont-combat-drug-toxicity\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T00:01:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T04:01:44","slug":"funding-for-abstinence-based-programing-wont-combat-drug-toxicity","status":"publish","type":"issues","link":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2022\/09\/funding-for-abstinence-based-programing-wont-combat-drug-toxicity\/","title":{"rendered":"Funding for abstinence-based programing won\u2019t combat drug toxicity"},"content":{"rendered":"

In mid-August, British Columbia<\/a>\u2019s provincial government announced that 10,000 people had died since 2016 by overdose from an unpredictable and poisonous supply of unregulated drugs.<\/p>\n

For many of us working or living in the epicentres of the crisis, these numbers have become somewhat abstract \u2013 but the associated death, grief and worry haunt our psyche. We wait for the next correspondence informing us that someone we know has been taken by the crisis.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the provincial and federal governments continue to slowly roll out a fragmented strategy, much of which has a loose, undefined connection to the crisis itself.<\/p>\n

Their collective approach continues to underfund the supply-side interventions necessary to reduce the death toll, while directing funds to abstinence-based programming that focuses on substance-use cessation. This is an approach that has little relevance to creating a predictable, safe supply of drugs.<\/p>\n

The past two years reveal B.C.\u2019s and Canada\u2019s strategy to combat the overdose crisis: to keep living, you must stop using drugs.<\/p>\n

The 2021 B.C. budget<\/a> has a section on \u201cSubstance Use and Overdose Emergency Response\u201d \u2013 but it makes no mention of the drug supply. It pledges $330 million toward a \u201cfull spectrum of treatment and recovery services,\u201d including $152 million toward \u201copioid treatment,\u201d a portion of which may include opioid agonist therapy. But this comes with strict diversion protocol and has only a minor effect on the drug supply.<\/p>\n