Illustration courtesy of Midjourney

News release from Break The Needle

Vancouverite Mark Budworth says he was exposed to illicit drug smoke while recovering from an ankle replacement at St. Paul’s Hospital.

Two months ago, nurses across British Columbia said that the provincial government had allowed addicts to openly smoke illicit drugs, such as fentanyl and meth, in hospital rooms to the detriment of frontline workers and other patients. The province subsequently committed to banning the practice – but testimony from a recently hospitalized patient suggests that, at least in some hospitals, this crackdown may not have been serious.

Mark Budworth is a semi-retired Vancouverite in his early 60s who received a full ankle replacement at St. Paul’s Hospital, one of the province’s preeminent medical institutions, in mid-May. In a recent phone interview, he told Break The Needle that, during his four day stay, he was exposed to illicit drug use that was tolerated by staff and made him feel unsafe.

Though only one story, his account fits into a broader picture of rampant fentanyl trafficking and public disorder that has been bleeding into the province’s healthcare system, all to the seeming indifference of provincial officials.

The problems allegedly began after his surgery when he was wheeled into his hospital room, which was shared with another patient who seemed around 30 years old. “There was a strong smell of smoke. And it didn’t smell like tobacco smoke. It smelled like drugs,” said Budworth, who claimed that the hospital porters transporting him commented on the smell but were largely indifferent to it. To his knowledge, no attempts were made by staff to do anything about the apparent illicit drug use.

The next day, Budworth had a friend visit him. He said that the hospital roommate introduced himself to them and was in a “euphoric” and “confused” state, which made them uncomfortable and led the friend to later speculate that the roommate may have been high on meth. After the friend departed, the roommate allegedly left the room and, upon returning, told Budworth that he had bought $200 of fentanyl.

Budworth said that, around midnight that night, he awoke and realized that his roommate, who sounded very intoxicated, was in the middle of an “aggressive” conversation with a female visitor, which sounded “a little scary.” He said the smell of illicit drug smoke lingered in the air and that he called the nurses who, in turn, summoned security guards. As the woman was being removed, security told her to pull her pants up from around her knees, he said.

The alleged incident left Budworth feeling unsafe, as he worried that he might face retaliation from his roommate. The hospital’s nurses refused to relocate him to a new room at first, but eventually relented after he persistently emphasized his safety concerns, he said.

In his second room, his new roommate was a homeless man who would often leave to smoke cigarettes and marijuana, he said. This new roommate allegedly told Budworth that the hospital’s fourth floor rooftop courtyard is an open drug market where people regularly fight and smoke fentanyl.

Budworth said that, throughout the rest of his stay, he spoke with several hospital staff and, though they were “wonderful,” his conversations with them suggested that illicit drug use was tolerated in the building. “The staff didn’t seem to think it was a big deal. It was normal,” he said.

He claimed to have spoken with four nurses, some of whom suggested that illicit drug use among patients was making their jobs difficult. “They’re people dealing with unlimited problems with limited resources,” he said.

After Budworth was discharged from the hospital, he wrote a letter to Health Minister Adrian Dix explaining his concerns, which he then forwarded to Break The Needle. “I’ve read a lot of articles about the nurses complaining. I hadn’t yet read an article about a patient complaining – patients’ experience. And that’s why I thought I should go on record,” he explained over the phone.

The conditions Budworth recalled at St. Paul’s were largely consistent with what was described in a news report published by Glacier Media Group in early April, before the province cracked down on open drug use in hospitals. In that report, a nurse who worked at the hospital told journalist Rob Shaw, “You can barely walk into some of the rooms, there’s needles and broken crack pipes and dirty food all over the floor.”

“Absolutely there are people throughout that hospital who are dealing and using everywhere,” said the nurse at the time. “We know they are drug dealers, and yet they come and go.”

Budworth’s testimony raises concerns about whether the provincial government’s attempts to control illicit drug use in hospitals have, at least in some instances, been unsuccessful.

In an emailed response sent to Break The Needle on May 30, a media representative of St. Paul’s stated that illicit drug use is not permitted anywhere in the hospital, except for an outdoor overdose prevention site (OPS) on the rooftop courtyard, which she said had received approximately 600 unique visits in the preceding two weeks.

The representative wrote that drug trafficking has “never been permitted” anywhere at the hospital, including the OPS. “Security has increased at our sites to support clinical teams as they respond to problematic behaviours, aggression, drug use, and illicit drug dealing in hospitals.”

But apparently those policies neither protected Budworth nor safeguarded his right to a dignified hospital stay free from illicit drugs and intimidating behaviour.

He blamed the province’s failed drug decriminalization experiment, which was recently scaled back by the BC NDP, and said that the decriminalization movement made him feel “uncomfortable” because, “We’re seeing people smoking fentanyl on the streets already… which is easy to walk away from when you’re mobile, but when you’re in a hospital bed and it’s happening in your room, it’s a little too close.”

“I was gonna vote NDP. I think the provincial government’s pretty good, but, with this experience, they lost my vote on this one… I don’t think that our current government and Victoria is really considering all the stakeholders on this issue,” he said.

[This article has been co-published with The Bureau, a Canadian media outlet that tackles corruption and foreign influence campaigns through investigative journalism. Subscribe to their work to get the latest updates on how organized crime influences the Canadian drug trade.]

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