B.C.’s free-drugs ‘experiment’ has left many dead. This crusader wants it shut down

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“One dad I met with early on,” says B.C. MLA Elenore Sturko, “talked to me about his young teen daughter. She died of a fentanyl overdose, and when they cleaned out her room afterwards, they found a bunch of diverted safe supplies, still in the capsule bottles with other people’s prescriptions, the name of the prescribing doctor, the name of the pharmacy.”

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More than 49,000 Canadians have died of fentanyl overdoses since 2016. Earlier this week, former RCMP deputy commissioner Kevin Brosseau was appointed Canada’s fentanyl czar; everyone’s watching to see what that will entail. Before that, in 2020, British Columbia attempted to tackle the problem, becoming the first jurisdiction in the world to launch a safer opioid supply policy, allowing individuals at high risk of overdose access to pharmaceutical-grade opioids free of charge.

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For Elenore, a former RCMP officer and now member of the B.C. legislature representing the citizens of Surrey-Cloverdale, B.C.’s experimental policy is a massive failure. “They were marketed as safe supply,” she says in a recent conversation. “Don’t worry. These are clean drugs. It’s government drugs. Nothing can happen to you. They quickly became dependent, and when that was no longer meeting their needs, they transitioned to fentanyl. Some of those people died of fentanyl overdoses.”

A leaked B.C. Ministry of Health PowerPoint presentation confirms what many have known for some time. “Taxpayer-funded ‘safe supply’ drugs are flooding the streets, enriching organized crime, in some cases with diversion fraudulently facilitated by pharmacies and medical professionals,” reads the B.C. Conservative caucus’s Feb. 5 press release. Donald Trump has even singled out B.C. as a source of illegal opioid trafficking.

It’s a betrayal of public trust, Elenore concludes, and her call to action is stern: “David Eby must fire Bonnie Henry immediately and launch a full public inquiry to investigate this dereliction of duty.”

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Recall that the B.C. Conservatives went from zero to 44 MLAs in last October’s election, winning just three seats shy of the NDP majority. Elenore was one of the early defections to Conservative Leader John Rustad’s team. She caused heads to whip last June when she crossed the floor; not only was she one of BC United’s star MLAs, she was a leading voice in the LGBTQ community joining a conservative party that had been criticized for its LGBTQ policies.

I’m curious about Elenore’s role in this explosive allegation against the Eby government. How did the damaging Ministry of Health PowerPoint presentation — reported to have been delivered to B.C. law enforcement by someone inside the provincial Ministry of Health — land in her lap?

Not surprisingly, Elenore’s discreet about how the report was leaked: “I knew that it existed, that it was coming and it did not come directly to me … but I’m grateful for the person or persons who decided to do that because this is an incredibly important piece of information for the public to have, just to understand the extent of the cover-up and disinformation campaign that’s been carried out by the government since 2020, when the risk mitigation guidelines came into effect.

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“The last six months of 2020, they dispensed 577,000 opioid pills. In the two years between 2022 and 2024, it was over 22 million,” she exclaims, citing facts disclosed in the internal Ministry of Health presentation. “It’s humiliating,” she says. “How many people are living in British Columbia, for goodness sake?”

Is giving people giant buckets full of hydromorphone to dump into the community harm reduction? No

Elenore is in her office in Victoria when we talk, prepping for a caucus meeting scheduled that afternoon. For the first time since last October’s narrow election victory by the NDP, the B.C. legislature resumes Tuesday. Her office has the generic look and feel of an Opposition MLA office: clunky leather couch, photographs tacked on an otherwise bare wall, there’s even an old-school radiator tucked along one wall.

She’s dressed in a dark suit with a bright yellow scarf wrapped around her neck. Not a hint of makeup adorns her earnest face, not even a dab of lipstick. She strikes me as a warrior prepared for battle. But it takes a little work to figure out, exactly, who is the enemy.

“You’ve called for Bonnie Henry’s resignation, in no uncertain terms,” I observe, “Why her and why now?” To my way of thinking, the premier is primarily accountable for this disastrous policy that seriously jeopardizes public safety. And the feds share some blame too, for making it possible.

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As a member of the B.C. Liberal caucus (which was renamed BC United), Elenore helped expose how Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) was busted and shut down in late 2023.  DULF’s Compassion Club and Fulfillment Centre bought illicit cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine, got it tested at a University of Victoria lab and resold the drugs at cost to club members.

“Charges of drug trafficking were laid against the two founders and operators of this organization,” she says, “and a month later, Bonnie Henry publishes her most recent report which calls for the expansion of safe supply into non-prescription models, including a recommendation of potentially having crack cocaine, crystal meth, all these drugs available in retail stores.”

“If you ignore COVID, if you ignore everything and singularly focus on how our public health officer has handled the opioid overdose crisis that we have here, the public emergency, you would see some really concerning patterns,” Elenore asserts. “Pushing for expansion of this non-evidence-based program, and totally excluding any kind of real meaningful evaluation or investigation of the harms.

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“We’ve got to stop calling things harm reduction,” she implores. “It’s not proven.”

“Can condoms help stop the preventive STDs?” she asks, “Of course, that’s harm reduction.”

“Can clean needles and access to clean water help prevent HIV and infections?” she  continues. “Of course, that is harm reduction.”

“Is giving people giant buckets full of hydromorphone to dump into the community harm reduction?” she asks, working herself into a fervour. “No. It’s not proven to reduce harm. It’s not evidence-based. It’s an experiment.”

“People sometimes get upset because they think, well, it’s very unusual for an elected official, a politician, to be going after someone who is a public servant,” Elenore reflects. That’s true, I agree; her angst seems directed at Dr. Henry, not the premier.

She’s quiet for a moment, then answers: “I think that every day that David Eby does not replace the PHO (public health officer) is a day that he confirms that he’s fully aligned with her.”

Elenore expects the B.C. government will blame pharmacies for this problem; 60 of 1,300 pharmacies have been implicated as being given kickbacks. “Of course we need to deal with kickbacks from pharmacies,” she says, adding the pharmacies should not be blamed for the problem with the policy. “Even if every pharmacy is on the straight and narrow, it would still be a problem,” she says, “a huge problem.

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“We’re not talking about safe injection sites at all,” says Elenore. “You’re giving dope to people who are addicted and they’re not taking it. They’re using it as a currency to buy street drugs and still put themselves at risk.”

I hope Canada’s newly appointed fentanyl czar is taking notes.

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