B.C. to require safer supply prescription opioids to be taken under supervision

British Columbia will require anyone receiving prescribed alternatives to illicit drugs to ingest them under the supervision of a health care provider, tightening the reins on a program that has faced considerable barriers to expansion and sustained political pushback.

The B.C. government is expected to announce this week that, beginning Dec. 30, anyone with a prescription for a regulated illicit drug alternative, also called safer supply, will need to take the medication in front of a pharmacist or nurse when that medication is dispensed at a pharmacy, according to a document obtained by The Globe and Mail.

The new policy builds off interim guidance issued earlier this year that required witnessed consumption for new prescribed-alternative patients, and directed prescribers to discuss with existing patients a transition to witnessed dosing, or other care options, as soon as possible.