BC Moved to Enable an Opioid ‘Safe Supply’ on the Streets. How’s that Going?

published on April 16, 2020 by Judith Lavoie in The Tyee

Withdrawal symptoms wait for no one, not even in the middle of a pandemic, said Guy Felicella, recalling the 30 years he spent addicted to drugs.

Felicella, who used heroin while living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, intimately knows the daily struggle to avoid withdrawal.

“You will have to go out, no matter what, and do what you have to do to get that substance,” said Felicella, a now-clean advocate for a safe drug supply and a peer clinical advisor for the B.C. Centre on Substance Use.

The federal government’s relaxation of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, followed last month by more flexible provincial guidelines for prescribers, is welcome news for agencies and advocates such as Felicella who have watched the already-poisoned drug supply become increasingly toxic and expensive as borders close and people self-isolate…

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