According to the results of a new research study carried out by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC), prescribing medical-grade opioids significantly reduced the numbers of both deaths and overdoses for B.C. residents.

Specifically, the study, published in the British Medical Journal, showed that individuals who were at risk of death related to illicit opioid use were 61% less likely to die from any cause in the following week if prescribed at least one day’s supply of a pharmaceutical alternative. Moreover, this study is also the first to examine the safer supply harms reduction strategy at a population level. It examined anonymized data from 5,882 participants diagnosed with either opioid or stimulant use disorder and who had filled a prescription for pharmaceutical-grade opioids as part of B.C.’s safer supply program between March 2020 and August 2021.

It was also found that the protective effect of the safer supply increased with the number of days opioid medications were accessed. Furthermore, individuals who received four or more days of prescription opioids were 9% less likely to die from any cause, and 89% less likely to die from overdose in the following week.