Alberta safe supply committee report not up to standards, experts say

published on May 2, 2022 by Paige Parsons in CBC News

A government-commissioned report examining safe supply of drugs is coming under fire from a group of addiction scientists and clinicians who say the work is deeply flawed.

In January, an Alberta legislative committee began studying whether safe supply programs could reduce drug poisoning deaths in the province.

As part of its work, it commissioned Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health & Addiction to do a rapid research review on the topic.

In the review the authors state they chose to use the term “public supply of addictive drugs (PSAD),” explaining that “safe supply” would presume the outcome of the review.

The reviewers concluded that in all the research they looked at, they found no evidence of benefits to adopting safe supply.

But the way the review was conducted raised concern among more than 50 addictions researchers and clinicians who signed a letter that was sent to the legislative committee on Monday…