‘Safe supply’ drugs being diverted, sold in London and beyond: Police

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A skyrocketing amount of drugs from safe supply programs in London are being diverted to the streets, police said Monday.

“Diverted safe supply is being resold into our community. It’s being trafficked into other communities, and it is being used as currency in exchange for fentanyl, fueling the drug trade,” police chief Thai Truong said. “There’s organized drug trafficking at the highest levels of organized crime. And there’s drug trafficking at the street level. We’re seeing all of it.”

Truong spoke at a news conference revealing the results of a six-month crackdown that led to the seizure of weapons, drugs and cash and 247 charges against 50 people.

“Criminals will do what they can to earn a profit. They’ll exploit individuals in this community and other communities to earn that profit,” he said.

The city’s best-known safe supply program will work with police to review its protocols for preventing diversion, said Scott Courtice, executive director of London InterCommunity Health Centre.

“I know that we have the leadership and knowledge in our community to find solutions, and we look forward to contributing to those efforts,” he said.

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But there are at least three other safe supply programs in the city that serve more people than his facility, and he’s not sure what their safeguards are, Courtice said.

“We need to stress that we know that diversion is happening from safer supply, but we can’t necessarily know how much of it is coming from the program that we run and how much of those is coming from other prescribers in the community,” he said.

“We’re very confident in the protocols. But when our police partners and our public health partners have told us that they’re concerned, we want to work with them.”

In safe supply programs, doctors prescribe the opioid hydromorphone, usually in brand name Dilaudid 8mg pills, to people who are at risk from using illicit and potentially deadly street drugs such as the opioid fentanyl.

Safe supply and other harm reduction measures – such as supervised drug-use sites, like the one on York Street in London – have become targets of some politicians during the past few years, with federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre promising to shut down those measures.

Critics say harm-reduction measures increase the drug supply and overdose rates, and should be replaced by a treatment-only system.

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Supporters say harm-reduction measures reduce deaths and associated risks of using illicit drugs and give people a chance to survive until they seek treatment.

Diversion of hydromorphone has added another layer to the debate, and for police officers, another challenge in the battle against drug trafficking.

Just how much diversion was happening in London was made clear at the news conference, where deputy chief Paul Bastien outlined the increases in seizures of Dilaudid 8 pills over the past five years.

In 2019, London police seized about 850 tablets of hydromorphone, roughly 10 per cent the Dilaudid 8 pills provided by safe supply, he said.

By 2023, that jumped to more than 30,000 tablets of hydromorphone seized, roughly half of it Dilaudid 8 pills, Bastien said.

“So far in 2024, we’ve seized just over 12,000 hydromorphone tablets, all but 675 was in Dilaudid 8 mg form,” he said.

At the same time, the number of pharmacy robberies targeting opioids dropped from seven in 2019 to one each in the past two years, he said.

Investigations from the guns and gangs unit also have shown direct evidence, such as packaging and labelling, of safe supply hydromorphone on the streets, Bastien said.

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“Taken together all of this has pointed to diversion as an important public safety concern, calling for an enforcement response,” he said.

The response during the past six months has resulted in more than $750,000 in drugs seized, including hydromorphone pills, fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, crack cocaine, oxycodone pills and carfentanil, said Det. Sgt. Josh Silcox, head of the guns and gangs section.

About $79,877 in cash and 30 firearms also were seized, he said.

Asked if London police support safe supply, Truong said police are responsible for enforcement, not making health care policy.

“With respect to safe supply and models of health care, I rely on the experts to provide that guidance as well the federal government (and) provincial government,” he said. “We will continue to do enforcement on drug trafficking in this community, which includes the diversion of the safe supply.”

Police, the public health unit and InterCommunity Health are partners in the region’s drug and alcohol strategy and will continue to work together, the region’s medical officer of health, Alex Summers, said.

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“This crisis quite simply is the most pressing public health issue that we face. The loss of life and the emotional, psychological and physical harms caused by this crisis are profound,” he said.

The number of opioid related deaths in London and surrounding Middlesex County rose from 60 in 2019 to 122 in 2022, with preliminary numbers showing 102 deaths in 2023.

“There is certainly no single solution and a response along all four pillars of prevention, treatment, enforcement and harm reduction are necessary,” Summers said.

London’s mayor issued a statement after the news conference supporting “an immediate, comprehensive, and full-scale review of existing protocol” of safe supply diversion.

“Where the matter of diversion of safe supply is concerned, we now have evidence that clearly shows the status quo is not working. This must be addressed, and there needs to be a level of urgency associated with that review,” Mayor Josh Morgan said.

Drugs seized by London police in the past six months

• Estimated $789,000 in value
• 11,132 hydromorphone pills
• 2 kilograms of fentanyl
• 3 kilograms of methamphetamine
• 5 kilograms of cocaine
• 296 grams of crack cocaine
• 1,875 oxycodone pills
• 153 grams of carfentanil

rrichmond@postmedia.com

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