A proposed class action lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court this week claims both the provincial and federal governments are liable for the addictions and, in one case, the death of adolescents gaining access to diverted safer supply drugs.
The civil class action claim was filed by family members on behalf of two teenage girls whose struggles with drugs has left one in treatment and the other dead of an overdose, according to Global News.
The plaintiffs in the proposed case are 17-year-old Amelie North and Kamilah Sword, who died of an overdose in August of 2022 at the age of 14. The teens, both from Port Coquitlam, B.C., were best friends.
“Kamilah and Amelie relied on the negligent misrepresentations to begin consuming the Safe Supply Drugs believing they were safe and they relied upon the negligent misrepresentations throughout the duration of their addictions,” the claim reads.
Amelie’s family told the media outlet the B.C. government’s prescribed drug supply program led the teen down a dark path that landed her in treatment for addiction.
Both families have laid blame at the doors of the province and the federal government for running so-called safer supply drug programs, saying there has not been enough oversight.
The proposed class action document contends that both levels of government “continue to fail to monitor the Safe/Safer Supply Program and how the terminology ‘safe,’ ‘safe supply,’ ‘safer supply’ or ‘prescribe safer supply’ is used to motivate the innocent Class Members.”
Sword is his daughter’s proposed representative plaintiff while Amelie’s litigation guardian is Denise Penske, her mother.
The class action must be certified by the court before it can move ahead. The allegations in the lawsuit have not been proven in court and the provincial and federal governments, the defendants in the case, have not had the chance to officially respond to the claims.
The Epoch Times contacted B.C. Premier David Eby’s office as well as the offices of federal Health Minister Mark Holland and Mental Health and Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks for comment, but did not receive a reply prior to publication.
In an Aug. 14 press conference, Eby was questioned about the effectiveness of the province’s safer supply program.
“Our government will do everything it can to try to keep people alive so they have the opportunity and have that moment of clarity to get into treatment,” he said. “It’s why we’ve been expanding treatment, that is why we had the prescribed alternatives program.”
More than 14,000 British Columbians have died of a drug overdose since the province declared an overdose public-health emergency in April 2016.
