B.C. premier steps in twice to limit his government's policies on drugs

Vaughn Palmer: Minister's defence of controversial 'harm-reduction' vending machines suggests they'll remain if NDP re-elected

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Published Aug 30, 2024  •  4 minute read

Vending machine at Victoria General Hospital in Victoria has recently been removed. Photo by DARREN STONE /TIMES COLONIST

VICTORIA — Premier David Eby this week ordered a review of his government’s installation of vending machines dispensing free crack pipes and other drug paraphernalia outside some hospitals on Vancouver Island.

Eby announced the review right after the B.C. Conservatives denounced the machines as “misguided, dangerous and enabling drug use.”

Gwen O’Mahony, a former NDP MLA now running for the Conservatives, posted a video on social media Tuesday of her at one of the machines outside the entrance of the emergency room of Nanaimo Regional General Hospital.

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“Let’s go get a free crack pipe and cocaine smoking kit,” she announced, then proceeded to show how the vending machine, leased for $2,000 a month by the Island Health Authority, allowed her to do just that.

“I was able to get a crack inhalation kit and a cocaine snorting kit,” O’Mahony declared, brandishing the results. “Unfortunately the crack pipes were out, which is no surprise, since crack pipes are traded for drugs.”

The Conservatives followed up with a news release, vowing to remove the machines if they get the opportunity to form government. O’Mahony’s posting went viral as members of the public reacted with shock and disbelief.

When Eby was asked later Tuesday, he tried to put some distance between himself and the vending machines dispensing free drug paraphernalia.

“I understand that some complaints have come forward about a machine that was meant to be dispensing wound care, naloxone, drug testing strips — that kind of thing that we’re hoping people will use to reverse and prevent overdoses,” the premier acknowledged to reporters.

He made no mention of the central element of the complaints — the distribution of free crack pipes and cocaine snorting kits.

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“This has caused me to ask the minister of mental health and addictions to do a review of any of the distribution methods that don’t involve direct contact between the service provider and somebody struggling with addiction,” Eby continued.

“We want to be sure that people are in contact with the system, that they’re talking to a doctor or a nurse or a social worker.”

For all Eby’s effort to suggest that the vending machines represented a departure from NDP policy, his government announced their placement by news release last October.

Three of the friendly-sounding “care and connection kiosks” were being installed at hospitals in Campbell River, Victoria and Nanaimo.

“Connection kiosks will electronically dispense discreetly packaged harm reduction items including condoms, wound care supplies, naloxone kits, take-home drug testing strips, and syringes and safe disposal containers,” said the release.

Again, no specific mention of crack pipes and instructional kits on how to sniff cocaine, though both were dispensed, discreetly packaged, through the machines as well.

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Lest there be any doubt that the installation embodied NDP government policy, the release included an endorsement from Jennifer Whiteside, the cabinet minister for mental health and addictions.

“These new care and connection kiosks are discreet and always open, making it easier for more people to get the life-saving supplies and treatment information they need where and when they need it,” said Whiteside.

In short, the crackpipe dispensing machines were endorsed by the same minister who Eby this week ordered to conduct the review.

Nor did Whiteside disavow the vending machines when reporters asked her about the review.

She said she believes that once the rationale for the machines is explained, most British Columbians will recognize the need. Which had me wondering if she’d begin by explaining it to the premier.

The machines will remain in place and operational while the review is underway said Whiteside. Or rather, two of the three will remain. The one outside Victoria General Hospital was removed earlier after reports that too many people were availing themselves of its supply of free crack pipes.

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The affair of the vending machines marked the second time in a week that Eby had intervened to put a check on his own government’s approach to the dispensing of harm reduction supplies — as they are known to advocates.

Last week, he ordered the Fraser Health Authority to rein in a web portal offering online ordering and home delivery of drug paraphernalia.

“We asked them to have a look and make sure that it was meeting expectations of supporting people by getting them in contact with the system, with treatments, that that was prioritized in the messaging on the site, that the materials that were being distributed were about reversing or preventing overdoses,” explained Eby.

But as with the crack pipe dispensing machines, the home -delivery service was announced earlier this month by a news release from Fraser Health.

Hard to believe the service did not receive advance scrutiny approval from the authority — whose overseer chair is longtime NDP supporter Jim Sinclair — or the relevant ministries in Victoria.

Nor did Fraser Health outright abandon the plan for home delivery of drug paraphernalia. Rather it described the premier-ordered makeover as “a pause on offering some harm-reduction supplies.”

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A pause? Maybe the home delivery service for drug paraphernalia, like the vending machines, are poised to survive if the New Democrats are re-elected.

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