2 Manitobans lost loved ones to overdoses. Now they want an alternative to toxic street drugs

Tammy Taillieu remembers her niece fate as a ram to be reckoned with. 

She recalls how the 22-year-old university pupil was smarting, compassionate and an counselor.

She also used substances, Taillieu said.

Destiny Taillieu died after a deadly dose of fentanyl in 2018. She and her boyfriend thought they were buying heroin, her aunt said. 

"I think that the whole fact that she died of a fentanyl poisoning was a shock to my family 'cause that's not what she intended on purchasing," Tammy Taillieu said. 

In the years since Destiny's death, her aunt has watched the number of overdose deaths in Manitoba rise. 

The most recent preliminary numbers from Manitoba's office of the chief medical examiner show there were 388 suspected substance-related deaths in 2025. Thirty-seven people died in January 2026.

With Manitoba facing a toxic drug crisis that's been found to include animal tranquilizers and powerful drugs such as fentanyl and carfentanil, Tammy Taillieu is calling for access to a safer supply of pharmaceutical-grade drugs. They would give people who use substances an alternative to the unregulated street supply, she said.

"We are in a public health emergency that is not getting a public health response," Taillieu said. "You have to stop the deaths before people can do anything else."

Taillieu, a public health researcher who studies substance use and substance-related harms, isn't the only one urging the province to implement programs that give people a choice of safer supply. 

Arlene Last-Kolb lost her son Jessie to a fentanyl overdose in July 2014. She said a supervised consumption site and opening more treatment beds or rapid access to addictions medicine clinics won't change the toxicity of the illicit drugs people are buying and using. 

"I think that it is negligent of our government to think that they're going to be faster than what's on our streets," Last-Kolb said. "They've proven that they haven't."

Last-Kolb and Taillieu are members of the advocacy group Moms Stop the Harm.

The Manitoba government said it's not considering providing safer supply as an option.

Access is happening on a bigger scale in British Columbia.

Dr. Paxton Bach, co-medical director of the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, said the province uses a prescriber-led model, meaning prescriptions come from a physician. Most of the time, it's a doctor in a specialized setting treating people with opioid use disorder, he said.  

Bach said the vast majority of people in the program are being prescribed hydromorphone, along with some form of opioid agonist therapy. Medications such as methadone and suboxone used in opioid agonist therapy reduce the "peaks and valleys" of uncontrolled opioid use, he said, and help control cravings and withdrawal symptoms.

"The goal is trying to separate people from a very toxic and a very unpredictable drug supply," Bach said.

He emphasized that there isn't one simple response to Canada's overdose crisis. Federal government numbers show there were 56,631 apparent opioid toxicity deaths reported from January 2016 to December 2025.

Safer supply is one potential option that can be considered as a harm reduction response, Bach said. 

He said there is preliminary evidence from Ontario and B.C. Suggesting it's associated with "a significant reduction" in overdose risk.

"Not a complete reduction risk by any means, and we don't have longer-term data as to … what this means over time," Bach said. "But at least in the short term, there's pretty good reason to think that it can be a helpful tool."

At the same time, there hasn't been enough surveillance done to understand the "unintended consequences," he added. 

British Columbia recently changed rules on how people access their prescribed doses after concerns around drugs being diverted for illicit use in the community. Most now require a pharmacist or medical professional to witness them using the drugs.  

Bach said it's not clear what impacts those changes will have going forward. 

He believes any version of safer supply being considered in other provinces can learn from existing programs and should be informed by many in the community, including medical experts, policy-makers and people with lived experience.

Alternative to toxic drugs needed: family members of overdose victims

"All I ask is that people come to the table with an appreciation of nuance and the sophistication of the type of discussion that's involved and an appreciation for the level of urgency we need to be showing here and a willingness to talk about these things," Bach said. "The potential benefits and the potential risks."

Dr. Erin Knight, president of the Canadian Society of Addiction Medicine, said that "generally speaking," the group hasn't taken a position on safer supply because it doesn't feel the science is at a point where it can provide a clear recommendation. 

She called it an evolving area of research and said there are people who have used safer supply and reported things such as fewer opioid toxicity events and a drop in illicit drug use, which decreases risks.

B.C. To require witnesses for those who are prescribed safer supply of drugs

New safe supply rules take effect in B.C., with mixed reactions

"But we haven't necessarily been able to correlate that consistently with, like, reductions in emergency department visits or reductions in overdose deaths or those kinds of population level things," Knight said.

She said prescribed safer supply program models are also challenged by a doctor shortage, which affects accessibility. It also means programs are limited, so impacts on the population are hard to measure, Knight said. 

She said work in this area is continuing and thinks other models of delivering safer substances also deserve exploring.

That could involve "buyer's clubs," where a group pools money to buy a large, predictable supply of drugs. It could also look at decriminalization, legalization or regulation, Knight said.

Alcohol, tobacco and cannabis are harmful drugs that are legal, she pointed out. 

"We have frameworks for how to try and reduce some of the harms related to those substances, and those kinds of frameworks could be applied to other substances as well," Knight said.  

That's something Last-Kolb would like to see, in addition to Manitoba providing access to safer supply.

"I would sooner have my son here doing regulated drugs than have him dead," she said.  

Contrasting studies show possible impact of safer supply in B.C.

Look to safe supply research, not disinformation campaigns, London doctor pleads with Ottawa

Taillieu said her niece tried to get help for her substance use, which included both alcohol and drugs, several times. Destiny had recently completed a detox program before she died and was about six weeks away from a spot in a treatment facility, her aunt said.

Taillieu believes if Destiny had access to some type of safer supply, it could have made a difference that last time she used. 

"I'm so sad that she didn't get to live out her full potential 'cause I think she would have made the world a better place for people," she said. 

It went on to say, in part, that the government is focused on expanding harm reduction supports such as drug-testing machines. The statement also pointed out the government's focus on getting people into housing.

---

---