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VICTORIA — The provincial health officer must have known this week that her call for expanded access to hard drugs without a prescription would be a non-starter with the NDP government.

Premier David Eby had already ruled out easier access to the so-called safer supply drugs as a response to the crisis in toxic drug overdoses.

There was also what happened last November. Then-coroner Lisa Lapointe released the report of an expert panel calling for the province to alleviate the toxic drug crisis by dispensing hard drugs without a prescription.

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The New Democrats were so put off by the recommendation, they issued a rejection before the news conference where Lapointe released the report.

Lapointe learned about the government response from one of the reporters covering her announcement. “I haven’t seen that, so I can’t talk about the specifics of it,” said the chief coroner, thoroughly blindsided.

The reporter then read out the key passage in the pre-emptive statement from the government: “Non-prescription models for the delivery of pharmaceutical alternatives are not under consideration.”

Lapointe, consummate professional that she was, maintained her cool in the face of the insult.

“It’s disappointing,” she told reporters. “The panels are impartial, objective, they’re not political, they’re not swayed by ideology. They base their advice on what they believe, based on their knowledge and experience, will reduce the deaths. This is the panel’s best advice.”

The government brushoff must have made it easier for Lapointe to announce in the following month that she’d be leaving when her third term as coroner expired in February of this year.

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Dr. Bonnie Henry, like Lapointe, drew on her own authority and the expertise set out in an 88-page report to bolster her call Thursday for non-prescription access to unregulated drugs — “also known as safer supply.”

This time the New Democrats waited until the provincial health officer wrapped up her hour-long news conference before putting out a response. But it was not long in coming.

“Dr. Henry is an important, independent voice on public health issues in this province and we respect her advice,” said the statement from Jennifer Whiteside, the minister of mental health and addictions.

Then the big but: “However this is a topic we do not agree on. The province will not go in the direction of compassion clubs and other non-medical models for distributing medications.”

The premier’s rejection, delivered Friday, was downright blunt.

There was “zero” chance the New Democrats would implement Dr. Henry’s recommendation, Eby told reporters. “It’s just non-negotiable.”

Still, the premier, like the minister, paid tribute to Henry’s expertise.

The New Democrats could scarcely do less, given the way they depended on the provincial health officer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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They maintained that B.C.’s pandemic response was “guided by science,” as interpreted and articulated by Henry. They also relied on her authority to provide cover for some of the more controversial decisions made in B.C.

When the schools remained open and some industries avoided lockdown, that was Henry’s doing.

When COVID-cases surged around the time of the NDP’s snap election call in the fall of 2020 — yet no new restrictions were added until after the votes were counted — Henry determined the timing.

When Henry joined then premier John Horgan on the public platform in mid-2021 to announce restrictions were being lifted, she decided to take part. And when some restrictions were restored after another surge in cases over the summer, that was her doing, too.

Well, it was the same Henry who spoke out this week on the toxic drug crisis and her recommended remedy was no less based on her authority and expertise than what she’d said and done during the pandemic.

“My role is to provide my best advice on public health matters,” she reminded reporters as well as the government itself.

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“My job is to put out there what we could do, how we might go about it, what I think are the important health issues that we need to address. I stand by this report.”

However, she also acknowledged that it is up to the government to decide “what people are willing to accept.”

And in this case, the New Democrats recognized that there is little enough public support for the combination of decriminalization, open drug use and access to hard drugs on even the current limited basis.

Further expansion would be toxic in the political sense, never mind what a widely respected figure like Henry says.

Listening to her Thursday, I was struck that we might be witnessing the final phase of her time as provincial health officer.

Given the calls for her head from the B.C. Conservatives, Henry acknowledged that her days might be numbered in the post.

“You know if people don’t appreciate the work that we are doing, then that is fully their right to replace me with somebody who they are more aligned with.”

Even a re-elected NDP government might not be all that disappointed were Henry to parlay her record and credentials into a posting elsewhere.

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vpalmer@postmedia.com 

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