A skyrocketing quantity of medication from protected provide applications in London are being diverted to the streets, police stated Monday
Printed Jul 15, 2024 • Final up to date Jul 15, 2024 • 4 minute learn
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London police Chief Thai Truong speaks to media on Monday, Feb. 5, 2024. (Derek Ruttan/The )
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A skyrocketing quantity of medication from protected provide applications in London are being diverted to the streets, police stated 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 stated. “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 information convention revealing the outcomes of a six-month crackdown that led to the seizure of weapons, medication and money and 247 charges towards 50 folks.
“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 stated.
The town’s best-known protected provide program will work with police to evaluation its protocols for stopping diversion, stated Scott Courtice, government director of London InterCommunity Well being 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 stated.
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However there are a minimum of three different protected provide applications within the metropolis that serve extra folks than his facility, and he’s unsure what their safeguards are, Courtice stated.
“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 stated.
“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 protected provide applications, docs prescribe the opioid hydromorphone, often in model title Dilaudid 8mg tablets, to people who find themselves in danger from utilizing illicit and doubtlessly lethal avenue medication such because the opioid fentanyl.
Secure provide and different hurt discount measures – equivalent to supervised drug-use websites, just like the one on York Road in London – have turn into targets of some politicians in the course of the previous few years, with federal Conservative Chief Pierre Poilievre promising to close down these measures.
Critics say harm-reduction measures improve the drug provide and overdose charges, and needs to be changed by a treatment-only system.
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Supporters say harm-reduction measures scale back deaths and related dangers of utilizing illicit medication and provides folks an opportunity to outlive till they search remedy.
Diversion of hydromorphone has added one other layer to the talk, and for law enforcement officials, one other problem within the battle towards drug trafficking.
Simply how a lot diversion was occurring in London was made clear on the information convention, the place deputy chief Paul Bastien outlined the will increase in seizures of Dilaudid 8 tablets over the previous 5 years.
In 2019, London police seized about 850 tablets of hydromorphone, roughly 10 per cent the Dilaudid 8 tablets supplied by protected provide, he stated.
By 2023, that jumped to greater than 30,000 tablets of hydromorphone seized, roughly half of it Dilaudid 8 tablets, Bastien stated.
“So far in 2024, we’ve seized just over 12,000 hydromorphone tablets, all but 675 was in Dilaudid 8 mg form,” he stated.
On the similar time, the variety of pharmacy robberies concentrating on opioids dropped from seven in 2019 to at least one every previously two years, he stated.
Investigations from the weapons and gangs unit even have proven direct proof, equivalent to packaging and labelling, of protected provide hydromorphone on the streets, Bastien stated.
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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 stated.
The response in the course of the previous six months has resulted in additional than $750,000 in medication seized, together with hydromorphone tablets, fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, crack cocaine, oxycodone tablets and carfentanil, stated Det. Sgt. Josh Silcox, head of the weapons and gangs part.
About $79,877 in money and 30 firearms additionally had been seized, he stated.
Requested if London police help protected provide, Truong stated police are answerable for enforcement, not making well being care coverage.
“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 stated. “We will continue to do enforcement on drug trafficking in this community, which includes the diversion of the safe supply.”
Mayor Josh Morgan speaks to 1,200 folks gathered at RBC Place conference centre for the annual state of the town handle on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. (Derek Ruttan/The )
Police, the general public well being unit and InterCommunity Well being are companions within the area’s drug and alcohol technique and can proceed to work collectively, the area’s medical officer of well being, Alex Summers, stated.
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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 stated.
The variety of opioid associated deaths in London and surrounding Middlesex County rose from 60 in 2019 to 122 in 2022, with preliminary numbers displaying 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 stated.
London’s mayor issued an announcement after the information convention supporting “an immediate, comprehensive, and full-scale review of existing protocol” of protected provide 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 stated.
Medication seized by London police previously six months
Estimated $789,000 in value11,132 hydromorphone pills2 kilograms of fentanyl3 kilograms of methamphetamine5 kilograms of cocaine296 grams of crack cocaine1,875 oxycodone pills153 grams of carfentanil
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