Part of the poor data issue likely stems from the strange power dynamics that have developed between some PSAD/safe supply clinicians and their patients. Instead of being participatory in the process, as all patients should be in health care they engage in, the wishes of the studies’ subjects often override scientific principles of objective data collection. Which renders the results biased and, well, unscientific.
One clinician said they didn’t collect urine samples – to show whether the program is achieving its goal of replacing illicit drugs – because it was considered intrusive and so, might stop people from participating in the program.
Over the years, PSAD /safe supply researchers have drawn a majority of their participants from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, home of the Vancouver Association of Drug Users (VANDU) and the Drug Users Liberation Front (DULF), two of the most well-organized, politically connected drug user associations in Canada. Both organizations are fairly singularly focused on the legalization of all drugs and have taken aggressive actions to achieve it.
DULF gained media attention last summer when members unrepentantly announced they were tired of watching their friends die of drug overdoses while waiting for legalization and had taken matters into their own hands. So began their practice of buying meth, cocaine and heroin off the dark web, then testing, packaging and distributing it to members and drug user groups in other parts of the province.
VANDU was formed in 1997 to advocate for drug users overdosing from heroin and contracting HIV and Hepatitis C at alarming rates. According to VANDU’s principles for researchers, anyone who works with VANDU community members is obligated to support the goals of the organization.
“The active struggle of people oppressed by drug war policies and fighting for their liberation will be the decisive factor in ending the drug war. Researchers can play a positive role when they act as supporters, allies and partners of this movement for liberation.”
Safe supply advocates appear to have embraced the VANDU ethos.
Certainly, the B.C. and federal government public health and elected officials are headed lockstep towards legalization. In the meantime, they’re moving the system towards a ‘non-prescriber model’ where active drug user groups and harm reduction organizations distribute illicit drugs without medical oversight.
It can’t come fast enough for drug users.
A 21-year-old female safe supply participant shared her expectations of clinicians: “I’m addicted to fentanyl. So, they’re not even giving me my drug of choice, and then they’re making me swallow it. It pisses me off because they’re like, ‘We’re trying to help you,’ and it’s like, ‘Give me my drug of choice then.’”
Don’t worry, it’s coming.