Virtual clinics prescribe safer-supply drugs to people as opioid crisis deepens [Video]

Three relatively new virtual health-care clinics in London are prescribing opioids to people who would otherwise buy toxic drugs on the street.

Two of the clinics are larger operations that function specifically to treat substance use, while a third is run by a doctor from Hamilton who specializes in treating marginalized patients. 

“We are the first line of contact for patients who have been using the contaminated street supply and we have seen the difference in them when they are prescribed safer supply,” said Nasir Ladak, who manages Chapman’s Pharmacy in Old East Village.

Prescribing hydromorphone, known by its brand name Dilaudid, as an alternative to the toxic, unregulated drug supply is commonly known as safer supply. 

True North Medical, a virtual care “addiction medicine program” based in Toronto, has a small office within Chapman’s, Ladak said. True North provides Chapman’s with urine sample testing kits, which can show within …