Police in northern Ontario want tighter safer-supply rules to keep prescription opioids off streets

A 2024 file photo shows a patient displaying the hydromorphone pills she receives each day under provisions of a special B.C. program. The same medications, prescribed as safer-supply drugs, are now turning up in northern Ontario drug investigations. (Chris Corday/CBC)Social SharingNOTE: This is the first in a two-part series on the call for stricter rules around prescribing safer-supply drugs in Ontario. The second part will focus on concerns raised by doctors.

Prescription opioids meant to help people struggling with addiction are increasingly turning up in drug investigations in northern Ontario, according to police.

Brad Reaume, a detective with the North Bay Police Service and head of its street crime team, said officers began noticing unusually large quantities of prescription opioids during drug investigations in 2023 and 2024.

“We believe the drugs came from pharmacies within North Bay and there’s nothing to suggest it came from outside the community at this point,” he said.

This past summer, in one investigation, officers seized 187 oxycodone pills, 90 other opiate pills and several bottles of methadone.

“Most of the diverted medication we get, the prescription labels are ripped off or altered, so they don't display the prescription holder,” Reaume said. “Some of them do actually. But the majority of them, it is very evident that they've been diverted because you'll see that the name has been scratched off or covered over with a marker.”

Among the medications that have been seized by police are hydromorphone, commonly known by the brand name dilaudid, and oxycodone. Both are for safer-supply use — when someone with opioid use disorder is prescribed pharmaceutical-grade opioids as an alternative to street drugs, often without direct supervision by a health-care professional. 

The practice of safer supply gained traction during the COVID-19 pandemic as overdoses increased across Canada.

In 2020, Health Canada started funding several pilot programs that offered prescribed opioids as alternatives to street drugs.

The federal government stopped providing funding in 2025, leading to closure of those programs, but doctors in Ontario still have the authority to prescribe opioids to someone struggling with addiction. 

For doctors in the province, prescribing guidelines are governed by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) and a doctor’s individual judgment. But there have been recent changes. 

In June 2026, the CPSO amended its prescribing policy to clarify expectations around safer-supply prescribing. It now requires that physicians first conduct an in-person assessment, offer medications like methadone and suboxone, and conduct in-person assessments at least every three months when safer supply is prescribed on an ongoing basis.

“[These amendments] were intended to improve prescribing practices and optimize patient care in an area with significant safety considerations,” said CPSO spokesperson Laura Zilke in a statement to CBC News. “CPSO also recognizes that, while these amendments were an important step, they are not a complete solution to the broader challenges associated with drug diversion and the toxic drug supply. 

“This remains an active area of focus for the college.”

Reaume said people involved in the illegal drug market have told police the medications are often used as currency — sold for cash or traded for other drugs.

“An individual that receives a certain prescription could essentially just either sell or trade the drugs for the more desired drugs that they're trying to seek.” 

Det. Brad Reaume, who leads the North Bay Police Service’s street crime unit, says, 'An individual that receives a certain prescription could essentially just either sell or trade the drugs for the more desired drugs that they're trying to seek.' (Faith Greco/CBC)Reaume said prescription opioids are also marketed to “sometimes young, sometimes inexperienced drug users that are just entering into drug use.”

Of the 1,398 opioid toxicity deaths recorded in Ontario in 2025, about one in five involved regulated opioids in the absence of fentanyl — roughly 280 deaths, according to the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network.

North Bay police aren’t the only police service reporting prescription opioids in drug-trafficking investigations. The Anishinabek Police Service, which serves 16 First Nation communities, said it too has seen an increase in prescription medications being seized during drug-trafficking investigations.

The First Nation force wrapped up a six-month investigation in June that targeted a network of individuals who “exploit First Nation communities” located along major provincial highways. It led to the seizure of almost 400 tablets of prescription opioids, including oxycodone.

The Anishnabek Police Service seized nearly 400 prescription opioid tablets as part of a six-month investigation into a network of drug traffickers targeting First Nation communities along provincial highways. (Supplied by the Anishnabek Police Service)“Opioid-related harms continue to disproportionately affect First Nations People and communities,” an Anishinabek police spokesperson said in a statement to CBC News.

Reaume said these prescription opioids can become even more valuable as they’re moved farther north. 

Through investigations across Ontario, Reaume said, police have seen prescription opioids being pushed into northeastern and northwestern Ontario, where the same pills can go for significantly higher prices compared to southern parts of the province. 

In the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), for example, “they might go for a quarter. Up on the James Bay coastline, they might go for $40 for this exact same pill,” he said. 

“Individuals that are interested in generating financial benefit from [prescription opioids] would want to push them north.”

Reaume said the North Bay Police Service has been speaking with doctors from the local area and the GTA in hopes of finding a way to prevent prescription opioids from ending up on the streets. 

“What we believe would be sort of the no-brain solution to this is observed consumption,” he said. 

“Instead of allowing an individual to take an allotment of pills or methadone home, the consumption should be observed by the prescriber or the pharmacy that's dispensing them, essentially eliminating the diversion of medication.”

Reaume said some doctors consulted by police worry the change could prevent people from getting the medication for therapeutic purposes, but he believes observed consumption would still maintain access while reducing risk of the drugs from being sold or traded. 

“With the increase of these drugs that are being discovered and the conversations we’re having with individuals involved in the use and sale of these drugs, we’re changing our priorities and putting more of a focus on prescription diversions,” Reaume said.

“We do recognize the benefit of diverting, so selling or trading these drugs is just continuing that cycle of addiction for people that are desperately looking for help.”

North Bay police aren’t alone in asking for change. Doctors working in addiction medicine are also calling for stricter regulations.

Note: Part 2 of this series will look at the concerns raised by doctors, including the history of safer-supply prescribing and how the practice has evolved.

Faith Greco is a journalist for CBC News in Sudbury, covering northern Ontario. She was previously based at CBC Ottawa. You can reach her at faith.greco@cbc.ca.