Addictions
14-year old Kamilah Sword died after becoming addicted to diverted “safer supply” opioids. Now her loved ones are speaking up.

By Adam Zivo
New documentary exposes suffering caused by Canada’s “safer supply” programs
It has been widely reported that “safer supply” opioids are getting into the hands of youth and causing new addictions and deaths – but this fact, terrible as it is, can feel abstract to many. That’s why I’ve released this new 28-minute documentary, “Government Heroin 2: The Invisible Girls,” to illustrate the terrible harms being inflicted upon families by this failed policy.
The film focuses on the story of Kamilah Sword, a 14-year-old girl from Metro Vancouver who died of drug-related causes in 2022. Before her death, Kamilah and her friends had been using hydromorphone, an opioid as potent as heroin, that originated from government-funded safer supply programs.
These programs claim to reduce overdoses and deaths by providing addicts with pharmaceutical-grade addictive drugs – typically hydromorphone – as an alternative to riskier street substances. In reality, though, most addicts simply divert (sell or trade) their safer supply to the black market to acquire stronger drugs, such as illicit fentanyl. This then floods surrounding communities with hydromorphone, crashing its street price by up to 95 per cent and fueling new addictions.
Kamilah and her friends were victims of this corrupt system.
In 2021, hydromorphone pills suddenly became popular at their school. The pills, which were colloquially called “dillies,” were abundant and cheap and many teenagers did not believe that they were dangerous to experiment with, as they had originally been prescribed by the government and were marketed as “safe.”
The girls did not understand that they were essentially playing with heroin. Not until it was too late. But they were hopelessly addicted by then and as their opioid tolerances grew, so did their appetite for dillies.
Two of Kamilah’s friends – Amelie North and Madison (a pseudonym) – escalated to using fentanyl and eventually went to rehab. But Kamilah herself was not so lucky. She was found dead, curled up in the fetal position in her bed and with foam on the corner of lips, one warm August morning.
It was only after her death that her father, Greg Sword, learned about how safer supply had destroyed the lives of his daughter and her friends. Amelie and Madison explained to him, for example, how they would sometimes travel downtown and purchase dillies directly from safer supply patients, who gave the cheapest prices.
The Trudeau Liberals and BC NDP have spent years aggressively advocating for safer supply and have repeatedly denied that diversion is a serious issue that harms youth. So when Kamilah’s loved ones went public with their story in the summer of 2023, it caused a national scandal.
The situation was further complicated when the BC Coroners Service, after a considerable delay, released Kamilah’s coroner’s report in late December 2023. The report ruled out hydromorphone as a cause of death and claimed that Kamilah had died of a cardiac arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat) caused by cocaine and MDMA.
But when several physicians and forensic pathologists reviewed the report, they noticed some concerning irregularities.
As Kamilah’s body was not sent to autopsy (a scandal in itself), it would’ve been impossible to confidently diagnose an arrhythmia as a cause of death. And in complex polydrug cases such as Kamilah’s, the best practice would have been to list every major death as contributing to mortality – including hydromorphone.
Additionally, the coroner claimed that it was unknown from where the hydromorphone in Kamilah’s body had originated – even though Kamilah’s friends and family had been clear, across several media reports, that the drugs were diverted safer supply. It was impossible that the BC Coroners Service would have been unaware of this, but, strangely enough, no attempt was made by the coroner to interview Kamilah’s loved ones about her death, despite such interviews being regular practice.
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Greg Sword, along with Amelie and her mother, recently launched a class action lawsuit against a wide array of defendants – including the governments of British Columbia and Canada – for irresponsibly marketing and prescribing safer supply, and for their “wilful blindness” to the prevalence and dangers of diversion.
The tragedy of this story cannot be adequately captured with words. The tears of a mourning father need to be seen and heard to be grasped. The sobs of a mother who laments her daughter’s fentanyl addiction has no substitute.
This is why Government Heroin 2: The Invisible Girls exists. To give these families a chance to be properly understood. And to better inform the public, through visceral storytelling, of the outrageous failures of Canada’s institutions and addiction policies.
This film is the second in a series. The first installment – “Government Heroin” – focuses on a 25-year-old student in Ontario who purchased thousands of diverted safer supply films. That 19-minute film provides a slightly more technical overview of the safer supply diversion scandal, so while each film stands on its own, the two also pair together very well (with a brisk total runtime of only 47 minutes).
I implore you to watch this new documentary, and its predecessor, too, if possible. They are sad and challenging, and yet vitally necessary for anyone who is concerned about Canada’s eroding public order and, of course, the predations of organized crime.
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Addictions
Calls for Public Inquiry Into BC Health Ministry Opioid Dealing Corruption

The leaked audit shows from 2022 to 2024, a staggering 22,418,000 doses of opioids were prescribed by doctors and pharmacists to approximately 5,000 clients in B.C., including fentanyl patches.
A confidential investigation by British Columbia’s Ministry of Health, Financial Operations and Audit Branch has uncovered explosive allegations of fraud, abuse, and organized crime infiltration within PharmaCare’s prescribed opioid alternatives program. Internal audit findings, obtained by The Bureau, suggest that millions of taxpayer dollars are being diverted into illicit drug trafficking networks rather than serving harm reduction efforts.
The leaked documents include photographs from vehicle searches that show collections of fentanyl patches and Dilaudid (hydromorphone) apparently packaged for resale after being stolen from the taxpayer-funded “safer supply” program. This program expanded dramatically following a federal law change implemented by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government in 2020, which broadened circumstances in which pharmacy staff could dispense opioids, according to the document’s evidence.
“Prior to March 17, 2020, only pharmacists in BC were permitted to deliver [addiction therapy treatment] drugs,” the audit says.
B.C.’s safer supply program was launched in March 2020 as a response to the opioid overdose crisis, declared in 2016. It allows people with opioid-use disorder to receive prescribed drugs to be used on-site or taken away for later use.
The Special Investigations Unit and PharmaCare Audit Intelligence team identified a disturbing link between doctors, pharmacists, assisted living residences, and organized crime, where prescription opioids meant to replace illicit drugs are instead being diverted, sold, and trafficked at scale.
“A significant portion of the opioids being freely prescribed by doctors and pharmacists are not being consumed by their intended recipients,” the document states.
It suggests that financial incentives have created a business model for organized crime, asserting that “prescribed alternatives (safe supply opioids) are trafficked provincially, nationally, and internationally,” and that “proceeds of fraud” are being used to pay incentives to doctors, pharmacists, and intermediaries.
BC Conservative critic Elenore Sturko, a former RCMP officer, began raising concerns about the program two years ago after hearing anecdotes about prescribed opioids being trafficked. She asserts that the program is a failure in public policy and insists that Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry be dismissed for having “denied and downplayed” problems as they emerged. Sturko also argues that B.C. must change its drug policy in light of U.S. President Donald Trump’s stance linking the trafficking of fentanyl and other opioids to potential trade sanctions against Canada.
The document shows that PharmaCare’s dispensing fee loophole has incentivized pharmacies to maximize billings per patient, with some locations charging up to $11,000 per patient per year—compared to just $120 in normal cases.
Perhaps most alarming is the deep infiltration of B.C.’s safer supply program by criminal networks. The Ministry of Health report lists “Gang Members/Organized Crime” as key players in the prescription drug pipeline, which includes “Doctors, pharmacies, and assisted living residences.”
This revelation confirms long-standing fears that B.C.’s “safe supply” policy—originally designed to prevent deaths from contaminated street drugs—is instead sometimes supplying criminal organizations with pharmaceutical-grade opioids.
The leaked audit shows from 2022 to 2024, a staggering 22,418,000 doses of opioids were prescribed by doctors and pharmacists to approximately 5,000 clients in B.C., including fentanyl patches.
Beyond organized crime’s direct involvement, pharmacies themselves have exploited regulatory gaps to generate massive profits from PharmaCare’s policies:
- Pharmacies offer kickbacks to doctors, housing staff, and medical professionals to steer patients toward specific locations.
- Financial incentives fuel fraud, with multiple investigations identifying 60+ pharmacies offering incentives to clients.
- Non-health professionals, including housing staff, are witnessing OAT (opioid agonist treatment) dosing, violating patient safety protocols.
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Addictions
Provinces are underspending on addiction and mental health care, new report says

The Greta and Robert H. N. Ho Psychiatry and Education Centre, the HOpe Centre, a health care facility for mental illness and addiction in North Vancouver, B.C. (Dreamstime)
By Alexandra Keeler
The provinces are receiving billions in federal funds to address mental health and substance use. Why are so many spending so little?
The provinces are failing to allocate sufficient funding to addiction and mental health care services, a new report says.
The report, released Dec. 19 by the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health, criticizes the provinces for a “long history of … demanding maximum cash for health care from the federal government with minimum accountability.”
The alliance is a coalition of 18 prominent health organizations dedicated to improving Canada’s mental health care. Its members include the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Psychiatric Association and the Canadian Mental Health Association.
On average, the provinces have allocated just 16 per cent of $25 billion in federal health-care funding toward mental health and addiction services, the report says.
“Given the crisis of timely access to care for those with mental health and substance use health problems, why are so many provinces and territories investing so little new federal dollars to improve and expand access to mental health and substance use health care services?” the report asks.
However, some provinces dispute the report’s criticisms.
“The funding received from the federal government is only a small part of Alberta’s total $1.7 billion allocation towards mental health, addiction and recovery-related services,” an Alberta Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction spokesperson told Canadian Affairs in an emailed statement.
“[This] is a nation leading level of investment response.”
‘Take the money and run?’
In 2023, Ottawa and the provinces committed to spend $25 billion over 10 years investing in four priority areas. These areas are mental health and substance use, family health services, health workers and backlogs, and a modernized health system.
The alliance’s report, which looks at provincial investments in years 2023 through 2026, says mental health and substance use are being given short shrift.
B.C., Manitoba and P.E.I. have allocated zero per cent of the federal funds to mental health and substance use, the report says. Three other provinces allocated 10 per cent or less.
By contrast, Alberta allocated 25 per cent, Ontario, 24 per cent, and Nova Scotia, 19 per cent, the report says.
The underspending by some provinces occurs against a backdrop of mental health care already receiving inadequate investment.
“[P]ublicly available data tells us that Canada’s mental health investments account for roughly 5% of their health budgets, which is significantly below the recommended 12% by the Royal Society of Canada,” the report says.
However, several provinces told Canadian Affairs they took issue with the report’s findings.
“Neither the Department of Health and Wellness nor Health PEI received requests to provide information to inform the [alliance’s] report,” Morgan Martin, a spokesperson for P.E.I.’s Department of Health and Wellness, told Canadian Affairs.
Martin pointed to P.E.I.’s investments in opioid replacement therapy, a mobile mental health crisis unit and school health services as some examples of the province’s commitment to providing mental health and addiction care.
But Matthew MacFarlane, Green Party MLA for P.E.I.’s Borden-Kinkora riding, says these investments have been inadequate.
“P.E.I. has seen little to no investments into acute mental health or substance use services,” he said. He criticized a lack of new detox beds, unmet promises of a new mental health hospital and long wait times.
The alliance’s report says New Brunswick has allocated just 3.2 per cent of federal funds to mental health and addiction services.
However, a New Brunswick Department of Health spokesperson Tara Chislett said the province’s allocation of $15.4 million annually from the federal funds does not reflect the additional $200 million of provincial funding that New Brunswick has committed to mental health and substance use.
In response to requests for comment, a spokesperson for the alliance said the federal funding is important, but “does not nearly move the yardsticks fast enough in terms of expanding the capacity of provincial health systems to meet the growing demand for mental health and substance use health care services.”
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‘Blaming and shaming’
The discrepancies between the report’s findings and the provinces’ claims highlight a need for standardized metrics around mental health and addiction spending.
The report calls on federal and provincial governments to develop national performance indicators for mental health and substance use services.
“At the end-of-the day you cannot manage what you do not measure,” the report reads.
It advises governments to communicate their performance to Canadians via a national dashboard.
“Dashboards are being used with increasing frequency in the health system and other sectors to summarize complex information and would be one way to effectively tell a story … to the public,” the report says.
It also urges Ottawa to introduce legislation — what it dubs the Mental Health and Substance Use Health Care For All Parity Act — to ensure equal treatment for mental and physical health within Canada’s health-care system.
This call for mental and physical health parity echoes the perspective of other health-care professionals. In a recent Canadian Affairs opinion editorial, a panel of mental health physicians argued Canada’s failure to prioritize mental health care affects millions of Canadians, leading to lower medication reimbursement rates and longer wait times.
The alliance says its call for more aggressive and transparent spending on mental health and addictions care is not intended to criticize or cast blame.
“This is not about blaming and shaming, but rather, this is about accelerating the sharing of lessons learned and the impact of innovative programs,” the report says.
This article was produced through the Breaking Needles Fellowship Program, which provided a grant to Canadian Affairs, a digital media outlet, to fund journalism exploring addiction and crime in Canada. Articles produced through the Fellowship are co-published by Break The Needle and Canadian Affairs.
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