Health Canada spends $6.4 million trying to save face after billion-dollar drug strategy failure

The Canadian Press / Adrian Wyld

Canada’s federal health agency has teamed up with the Standards Council of Canada, seemingly trying to salvage its reputation after the disastrous rollout of its billion-dollar drug supply strategy.

The partnership has resulted in six guidance documents costing taxpayers approximately 6.4 million dollars.

Citing the need for everyone in Canada to receive equitable access to health services amid mental health and substance use support discrepancies, the agency is looking to standardize resources and develop guidelines to integrate healthcare availability nationwide.

Health Canada and partners release new resources to support more equitable and standardized mental health and substance use carehttps://t.co/DBZOwgC6EZ

— GC Newsroom (@NewsroomGC) September 26, 2024

The resultant resources include guidance documents on integrated youth services, integrated mental health and substance use healthcare services in primary care settings, mental health and substance use digital apps, integrated mental health and substance use healthcare services for people with complex needs and early psychosis intervention, substance use withdrawal management, and substance use health competencies for all prescribers.

These standards-based documents are meant to serve as a foundation for the future, encouraging service providers, regulators, and organizations in the mental health and substance use sectors to adopt them, ensuring that people across Canada have access to consistent, high-quality services.

The two years of research led to a new bureaucracy, titled the “National Mental Health and Substance Use Health (MHSUH) Standardization Collaborative” (MHSUH) that sought to bring “diverse perspectives” to provide the above-mentioned recommendations and insights.

WATCH: @TamaraUgo speaks with an anonymous public health expert about the shortfalls of harm reduction and safer supply drug policies.

MORE: https://t.co/NdSAp51aZc pic.twitter.com/AzPmHdtnif

— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) June 26, 2024

The research comes as the Liberal government struggles to provide any indication that their supposed “evidence-based” approach to illicit drug use under the 2017 implemented Canadian Drug and Substance Use Strategy (CDSS) has yielded any tangible success.

Instead, the strategy coincides with a doubling of overdose deaths nationwide. British Columbia, despite being a model for harm reduction for over two decades, exemplifies the failure of this policy, as opioids have become a leading cause of death among young adults, with one in four deaths linked to this devastating oversight.