On Thursday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry released a review of the province’s prescribed safer supply program, which provides alternatives to the toxic supply of street drugs.
Henry says that the review was done to better understand the impact of BC’s Safer supply program.
Sarah Lovegrove is professor of Nursing at Vancouver Island University, who is a member of the Harm Reduction Nurses Association. She said that accessing safer supply in Nanaimo can be a challenge for people who use drugs.
"Right now, we only have very few providers within Nanaimo that are willing to engage with safe supply prescriptions," she said.
Henry says that while she isn’t advocating a non-prescribed alternative to the safer supply program now, it is something that should be explored.
"I do believe we need to continue the discussion and the evidence and the investigation of non medical models as well," she said.