1. Why people who use drugs need a safe regulated supply of all drugs

In February 2019, the Canadian Association of People who Use Drugs published the first Safe Supply Concept Document in Canada, where the term 'safe supply' was first coined. This document is one of the most cited grey literature documents pertaining to safe supply.

We will define safe supply and discuss how it may be provided beyond the Canadian context. Safe supply is defined as a legal and regulated supply of drugs that traditionally have only been accessible through the illegal drug market. The need for safe supply is explained under four key principles safety, human rights, justice, & effectiveness.

Current safe supply initiatives in Canada are limited, and lack various molecules such as heroin and cocaine that are essential to reduce overdose and overdose deaths. Since CAPUD published the document, compassion clubs have emerged, where illegal drugs are purchased, tested, and distributed back to the community which has happened a handful of times in Vancouver. The current medicalized model for safe supply is limited in scope, not adequate to reduce the crisis. We do not have the drugs people are seeking nor enough doctors willing to prescribe more broadly to meet the needs of people who use drugs in our country.

We would like to have a wide-open discussion of what we believe the successes have been, limitations have been, and why countries need to start looking at regulating the drug market and profiting from in it instead of spending billions trying to eradicate it.