B.C. father questions province's safer supply program after daughter's death

PORT COQUITLAM, B.C. -

Nearly one year after Greg Sword's teenage daughter died from a drug overdose, he is still searching for answers and for someone to hold accountable.

Kamilah was just 14 years old when she overdosed in her bedroom in August 2022.

“From that point on, a living nightmare. Everything just hidden, no one wants to talk about it,” Sword told CTV News.

But early on, someone did talk.

Sword said four days after Kamilah’s death, someone from the coroner’s office called him.

“They found three drugs in her system: MDMA, cocaine, hydromorphone. First two, yes, I know. Third one, I had never heard of until that day,” he said.

Hydromorphone is an opiate used to treat pain.

It is also commonly prescribed under B.C.’s safe supply program.

Currently, Sword doesn’t know what killed Kamilah, where she got the hydromorphone from, or if it was diverted from the safe supply program.

He wants answers now, but thinks officials are brushing him off and dragging their feet on the investigation.

“They don't want to face the truth: A decision they made is causing more harm. They want to think that they're saving people,” he said. “Why is that the one drug in her system that’s supposed to be safe supply?

TURNING TO DRUGS AFTER LOCKDOWN

Sword describes Kamilah as a goofy and adventurous teenager, but said she was struggling during and after the pandemic.

He explained Kamilah began experimenting with drugs to cope after pandemic lockdowns.

“We opened up the doors from COVID, we threw all these girls back down onto the street like nothing happened, and they were struggling with anxiety and peer pressure,” he said.

He said he tried getting her help multiple times, but to no avail. Kamilah refused professional help and they were not getting the support they required.

B.C. officials acknowledge how the pandemic has been difficult on young people’s mental health, but what they can’t agree on is whether prescribed drugs under the safe supply program are being resold in the black market.

NO DATA SHOWING SAFER SUPPLY IS TO BLAME

Officials held a news conference last month that they said was to dispel myths.

They said there are anecdotes about safer supply, but no evidence to back up the stories.

“We aren't seeing any indication in our data, in the stories we track, that youth are using from diverted safe supply,” said Jennifer Charlesworth, B.C.’s representative for children and youth.

It is something that is being monitored.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said they are looking into whether safer supply is being sold in the illicit market.

“What we hear from clinicians is that (safer supply) is not meeting the needs for some of their clients and patients in their clinics. And so, it is possible it could be used for people to get other drugs that are meeting their needs,” she said.

A review is underway to see if “unintended consequences” – such as diversion – are happening. The review is also looking at whether safer supply is fueling substance-use disorders or new incidences of opioid-use disorder.

Chief coroner Lisa Lapointe said hydromorphone is something coroners look for in their examinations.

“We've not seen an increase in hydromorphone in post-mortem testing. That doesn't mean that, you know, some of that diversion isn't happening, but it is certainly being monitored,” she said.

However, in the BC Coroners Service's own data released last month, instances of hydromorphone being detected in overdose deaths involving youths are rising. 

In 2020, one young person had hydromorphone present in their autopsy; the following year, there were three; and in 2022, that number jumped to eight.

However, the BCCS said in eight of the 12 deaths, the concentration of hydromorphone was low and wouldn’t have likely contributed to the death.

It stresses that fentanyl continues to be the biggest killer in toxic drug overdoses.

MORE OVERDOSES

Sword doesn’t want to sit back and wait for his daughter’s autopsy in order for something to be done; he believes urgent action is needed now.

“Two of (Kamilah’s friends) have overdosed three times since my daughter’s death. They just lost another friend two weeks ago to the same stuff and they’re tired of losing friends,” he said.

“How many kids have to die before we do something about it?”

The BCCS said the investigation into Kamilah’s death remains open.

It said depending on the current caseload, complexity of the investigation and other factors, it isn’t unusual for a death that occurred less than one year ago to still be under investigation.