Vancouver pharmacies still pay vulnerable Downtown Eastside patients cash kickbacks despite ban, sources say

Frontline workers and community members in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside say some pharmacies are paying its patients kickbacks for prescriptions despite the practice being banned more than a decade ago.

CBC News has spoken to more than a dozen people in the community, including pharmacists, nurses, doctors and patients with first-hand experience, who claim some pharmacies are paying customers a share of the money they claim from the B.C.’s PharmaCare program.

They say payments can range between $100 and $200 per month depending on the number of daily prescriptions per person.

“The fact that these sort of behaviours are so common, and particularly within this population, without