Representations of Safer Opioid Supply Programs in Ontario Media Sources From 2021 to 2022: A Narrative Policy Analysis

Toxic drug poisoning has claimed 53,821 lives since 2016 in Canada. After years of advocacy by people who use drugs and their supporters, the Canadian government funded a series of safer opioid supply (SOS) programs, where individuals who use unregulated opioids receive prescribed pharmaceutical opioids to minimize overdose risk. Twenty-six programs have been implemented in Canada since 2020, with media capturing varying positions on their implementation. Using the Narrative Policy Framework, we examined Ontario print and online news media from 2021 to 2022 to explore the narratives circulating about SOS during early implementation amid overlapping public health realities, namely the COVID-19 pandemic and the state of the toxic drug supply. We searched Canadian Newstream and conducted hand searches between February 2022 and January 2023. The retrieved media coverage was screened for: (1) a focus on SOS programs; (2) a focus on the province of Ontario; and (3) publication between 2021 and 2022. Thirty-four articles ( n = 33 newspaper articles and n = 1 magazine article) were included in our final analysis. We found a metanarrative of “crisis management,” which positioned the “policy problem” of rapidly increasing opioid-related overdoses as a crisis that could be curtailed, or conversely exacerbated, with SOS. We therefore identified two dominant narratives on SOS to be operating toward this metanarrative—SOS as the “right crisis management solution” and SOS as the “wrong crisis management solution.” Each was importantly underlined by assumptions about the relationship between the “policy problem,” the “policy solution,” and structural conditions. This article offers insights into media communication strategies and their implications for advocacy and policymaking on SOS and broader harm reduction efforts.