‘Safe supply’ drug patient photo draws social-media fire, and his doctor’s defence

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A social media post purporting to show a London safe supply patient selling drugs to teenagers is hardly telling the real story, says the doctor in charge of the program.

The post contains unprovable allegations, is missing valuable information and is punishing an ordinary person trying to seek help for addiction, Dr. Dennis DiValentino said.

“This man should not be in the middle of some media battle. We don’t agree that people should be just punished because other people follow them around and photograph them, because they’re wearing tattered clothes,” he said.

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“It’s disturbing, and then sharing the picture of somebody you know to be seeking addiction care without even knowing for sure exactly what happened? He’s had no benefit of any doubt.”

Earlier this week, a photograph of a man and two high school students was posted on X by Adam Zivo, an anti-harm reduction advocate and National Post columnist. The Post and The London Free Press are both owned by Postmedia.

The post says that a whistleblower provided the photograph, and says it shows a man selling hydromorphone pills from a safe supply program to two high school students.

Diversion of safe supply drugs has become a political issue in Canada, and London has become one of the key staging grounds in the federal Conservatives’ attack on harm reduction measures.

The photograph was taken June 26, DiValentino told The London Free Press.

He operates his safe supply practice from the building at 528 Dundas St. A methadone service, Clinic 528, operates in the same building.

Methadone is a synthetic opioid that can reduce the craving for other drugs, and help people ease off other opioids.

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Hydromorphone, under the brand name Dilaudid, is provided to people so they don’t have to resort to the toxic mix of street drugs – often a combination of fentanyl and other chemicals.

The man photographed June 26 is a patient in the safe supply clinic and methadone clinic at 528 Dundas St., DiValentino said. Apparently, after a visit to the building, he walked across the road to H.B. Beal secondary school, where someone took the photographs, DiValentino said.

The photograph was shared with his program that same day, he said.

“An important piece of this story is that within an hour, we had canceled his prescription for community safety, and because he’s aware he’s not supposed to go across to the high school when he’s accessing the program,” DiValentino said.

It’s not clear what happened at the high school, he said. “It doesn’t matter what’s in his hand there. It matters that he’s not supposed to be there. We also notified the police and asked if they could look into it.”

The program took further steps to guard against the patient taking away medication in the future, but has not dropped him from the program, DiValentino said.

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“We continue to work with the patient, but we certainly addressed the safety issue immediately and notified all appropriate authorities,” he said.

Police were called to look into the situation, not to punish the patient, the doctor said.

“I don’t think anyone wants to see people who are already struggling get in more trouble. We just want to see some boundaries put in so we can help people safely.”

One of the most troubling aspects of the photograph is how it ended up on social media, DiValentino said.

“We take the community’s concerns about diversion very seriously. We want to look for solutions, but we’re not just going to politicize the battle while further victimizing vulnerable people.”

Opponents of safer opioid supply programs claim that large amounts of drugs handed out are being sold to others and finding their way to schoolyards.

The federal Conservatives under Pierre Poilievre have promised to end safe supply programs and other harm reduction measures aimed at keeping people alive while they work through addiction at their own pace and ways.

Research into one safer supply program at London InterCommunity Health Centre has shown patients’ lives and health improve, and police and hospitals save money by having fewer interactions with those patients.

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The centre, London police and the Middlesex London health unit are organizing discussions to create protocols around diversion prevention in safe supply programs.

His program, which serves about 100 patients, has diversion protocols but he’s already spoken to the health unit about joining the community effort, DiValentino said.

“We do need to make sure that the diversion is under control, but I don’t think that we should be going after marginalized patients. We just need to put some type of boundary in place so that we can grow the program and meet more needs, because they’re growing every day.”

rrichmond@postmedia.com

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