In a professional development seminar on physician reluctance to prescribe safe supply, Vancouver General Hospital clinical addictions psychiatrist, Dr. Pouya Azar, presented taped interviews from several of his patients.
This is Jeremy’s story.
After his 14-year-old daughter died of a drug overdose, the coroner informed Jeremy (not his real name), she’d had hydromorphone, cocaine and MDMA in her system. But no fentanyl.
Until then, Jeremy had never heard of hydromorphone. But since his daughter died, he’s learned more than he ever wanted to know about the drug.
“One of her friends has overdosed three times since then.”
His daughter’s friends have told him about the drug trade route from east side Vancouver to Port Coquitlam where his daughter lived and he still resides.
“They’ll just walk up and down the street [on East Hastings] asking people for ‘dillies’ (brand name, Dilaudid). Once those kids get the hydromorphone, they just head right back into the suburbs and sell it to their friends.
[A recent CTV story cited a teenage girl whose hydromorphone ‘dillies’ contained the same mix found in Jeremy’s daughter – hydromorphone, cocaine and MDMA – which may indicate illicit drug dealers have advanced from merely reselling safe supply, to manufacturing knock-offs.]