Ep. 159: Drug Law Reforms To Stop Opioid Crisis

Guest: Dr. Evan Wood, BC Centre for Substance Use

The opioid and fentanyl crisis that is sweeping through Vancouver, the province and beyond is growing unabated.

Dr. Evan Wood of the BC Centre on Substance Use says it's time to completely re-examine our drug policies and our drug laws.

Simply put, he says prohibition hasn't worked. He points to opium as an example. It was the drug that ignited a trade war between Great Britain and China. Since then, the transportation of the drug became restricted.

The production of heroin was the result because it was far easier to conceal, transport and avoid detection if the alkaloid morphine was extracted from the dried poppy and packaged in smaller bundles.

Fentanyl is one thousand times more potent than morphine. It is the latest iteration in the make-it-small, more potent and harder-to-detect reaction to prohibition. Buried below the surface of detection, these synthetic opioid analgesics enter the marketplace devoid of consumer protection.

And drug users with no intention of consuming fentanyl are at risk. The drugs are packaged in less than ideal locations, like a kitchen table. Once finished with fentanyl, the table may get a quick brush over, which frequently leaves traces of the killer drug behind.

Then when the cocaine that the dealer is cutting gets dropped on the same table, grains of the deadly fentanyl can (and often do) get mixed in. The unsuspecting cocaine user snorts the white powder and the result can be, and frequently is, deadly.

Wood suggests the establishment of labs available to pushers and users to determine the purity and potency of the drug will go a long way to reducing the fatal side effect.