As people who use drugs, we are the safer supply experts—not physicians

By Phoenix Beck Mcgreevy & Andrzej Celinski, Giulia Di Giorgio, Nat Kaminski, Alexandra Holtom / Filter

Safer supply saves lives. It’s that simple. People who use and sell drugs have long known this, and academic research is catching up too—demonstrating that safer supply reduces mortality rates and improves quality of life.

As people who use drugs (PWUD), we denounce the unfounded critiques of safer supply by addiction medicine physicians like Vincent Lam, medical director of Coderix Medical Clinic in Toronto. We are the ones navigating the illicit drug supply daily. We are the experts. Arguments against safer supply are consistently inaccurate, pro-profit and rooted in fear and hate-based ideology.

Our lives are not a moral dilemma.

Both medicalized and non-medicalized models of safer supply are part of the continuum of harm reduction. As non-medicalized models are not authorized in our current legal framework, much of this work falls on health care providers. They must weigh the lifesaving benefits of safer supply against the potential professional inconveniences, like audits.