Hydromorphone seized in London skyrockets 3,000%

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The National Post has learned that police leaders in London, Ont. have known for months that staggering amounts of “safer supply” opioids are being diverted to the black market. Yet the London Police Service (LPS) failed to share this information with the public despite a raucous national debate about whether, or how much, such diversion is occurring.

Safer supply programs, which are sanctioned by the federal government, distribute free addictive drugs — predominantly eight-mg tablets of hydromorphone, an opioid as potent as heroin — to mitigate the use of riskier street substances. While advocates claim that this practice “saves lives,” a series of stories in the National Post has shown that safer supply clients often divert (sell or trade) their free hydromorphone to acquire stronger substances, which then floods communities with the drug and fuels new addictions.

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Safer supply advocates have routinely dismissed reports of rampant diversion as “disinformation” and “lies.” In London, where Canada’s first safer supply program was piloted in 2016, these denials have benefitted from the silence of the LPS — how bad could the problem possibly be if local police haven’t said much about it? Very, it seems.

In early June, LPS Deputy Chief Paul Bastien confirmed to me in an email that hydromorphone seizures have exploded in the city since access to safer supply was greatly expanded in 2020.

“In 2019, we recorded fewer than 1,000 (hydromorphone) tablets seized. That number increased sharply in 2020 and continued to climb gradually until last year when the number of tablets seized increased nearly five-fold over 2022, to over 30,000. Based on seizure data for the first part of 2024, it appears likely that this year’s total could match or exceed last year’s,” wrote Bastien.

Dr. Sharon Koivu, a London-based addiction physician who has been warning the public about safer supply diversion for years, called the 3,000 per cent increase in hydromorphone seizures “unbelievably concerning” and said that “what the police confiscate is just a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of pills that are actually being diverted.”

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Dr. Koivu said that, based on her clinical experiences, diverted safer supply hydromorphone is obviously causing new addictions and getting into the hands of youth. Dozens of other doctors across Canada have publicly said that they are witnessing similar trends — and even harm reduction activists themselves have begun to acknowledge these issues.

“I’m not going to stand up here and say that some kids, some adolescents, are not accessing diverted safe supply and using diverted safe supply. Kids experiment with everything, and we need to be honest to ourselves that kids probably experiment with diverted safer supply as well,” said Dr. Andrea Sereda, founder and director of London’s first safer supply program, in a video presentation last month.

One would expect that, given the stakes involved, the London Police Service would have immediately notified the public if they saw any indication that safer supply hydromorphone was being widely diverted into local communities — but this information was not released.

In January, I interviewed Paolo Domingues, President of the London Police Association (police union). He told me that it was common knowledge among downtown frontline officers that safer supply programs are being widely abused, and that clients regularly divert their hydromorphone to procure fentanyl. “It’s really harming our community,” he said.

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On April 12, the LPS announced a drug seizure that included 9,298 eight-milligram hydromorphone pills — such a huge quantity strongly suggested a connection to safer supply.

Three days later, I emailed a detailed list of questions to the LPS regarding this seizure and inquired about safer supply diversion more generally. But the LPS did not answer these questions for three weeks, despite my repeated attempts to follow up, so I eventually requested a clear timeline from them.

The following business day (May 6), Bastien emailed me. We spoke on the phone, after which, I expected to receive data from him on the extent of safer supply diversion in London. The data did not materialize.

We spoke on the phone again in mid-May and he told me the police chief wanted more information before it could be released. ​​“I got some information from our guns and gangs officers. I briefed the chief… he’s asked for a little bit more information to get a better, like a clear picture,” Bastien said. “It’s a hugely important topic that we want to get right as we can. We know it’s going to generate more discussion, which is really not a bad thing.”

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The following week, an LPS media relations officer emailed me: “We have been asked by Deputy Chief Bastien to let you know he is still gathering the additional information he spoke with you about to be able to provide a fulsome response to your previous questions.”

By June 5, I had received no information from the police despite a month and a half of inquiries, so I gave yet another deadline to answer my original questions, but made it clear that my column would be published regardless if they responded or not.

Bastien responded with an email, which contained the aforementioned data showing a 3,000 per cent increase in hydromorphone seizures. He also wrote that, with respect to the April drug bust, “most of the tablets seized were found packaged in bulk. However, a small quantity of tablets was found in bottles affixed with labels suggesting they were prescribed through a safer supply program.” Based on available evidence, the LPS presumed that the tablets were not counterfeit, he wrote, and added that he would be able to speak much more openly about these issues at the end of June.

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His email confirmed that, for years, the LPS had access to evidence validating the existence of widespread safer supply diversion but had done nothing with it.

When I first emailed the LPS with questions about diversion in March 2023, a media officer responded, “We don’t have anyone available to speak to this, and respectfully decline your request.” But at that point they already had 2022 data showing a 600 per cent increase in hydromorphone seizures since 2019.

Last week, Bastien and I again spoke on the phone.

He confirmed that safer supply diversion is “an important public safety concern” and that the LPS is currently wrapping up a major investigation which touches upon it. Police leaders had debated how much information could be disclosed without jeopardizing operational security, which is why their response to recent inquiries had been delayed, but the investigation had reached a stage where such security was no longer a concern. The LPS will be announcing its findings sometime over the next several weeks, he said.

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Even if one were to accept the operational security argument, that wouldn’t explain why these statistics were withheld in the years preceding the investigation’s launch.

Bastien said that the seizure data had always been public, but had simply been published in a piecemeal manner through the media releases, which accompany the announcement of every drug bust. But a keyword-based search off these media releases doesn’t support the suggestion the data has been public. There appear to be significant gaps in what the releases show and, in some cases, they group together different drugs or list only their market values, without specifying seized amounts, making it impossible to aggregate data. And what good are these documents if the LPS resists answering questions about them?

Bastien conceded this point and said that the LPS needs to improve its data gathering and sharing processes, both internally and externally. He noted that, historically speaking, the LPS has often been reluctant to publicly share data due to “an institutional culture of secrecy,” but, under the leadership of the Chief Thai Truong, who was appointed last summer, there has been a concerted effort to implement reforms and improve transparency and community trust.

Imagine how different the debate about safer supply would have been over the past six months had the LPS disclosed what it actually knew. Imagine if the public had been informed, six months or a year ago, that black market hydromorphone seizures had increased thirty-fold in the city where safer supply was first launched in Canada. How many heroin-strength pills could have been kept off the streets? How many people could have been saved from the seduction of cheap and abundant opioids?

Adam Zivo is director of the Centre for Responsible Drug Policy.

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