The federal government spends tens of millions of dollars more than necessary each year on prescription drug benefits for native Canadians, and fuels an epidemic of abuse and addiction among First Nations patients in the process.

Health Canada spends about $430 million a year on drug benefits for uninsured Canadians. The bulk of that -- almost $300 million -- is spent on prescription drugs for natives. The federal Auditor General estimates up to a million of prescriptions filled under the program each year are fraudulent.

Criticism of the Health Canada program was first levelled by the Auditor General almost 10 years ago. Three times since then, the government spending watchdog has documented widespread abuse in the free drug program. It's a program, according to Auditor General Sheila Fraser, that wastes tax dollars and puts aboriginal lives at risk.

Regina resident Lorraine Stonechild knows the cost of the taxpayer funded prescription drug abuses all too well. Three of her family members have died from prescription drug overdoses. The death of her brother, Darcy Dean Ironchild, in 2000, led to a highly publicized coroner's inquest in Saskatchewan which prompted the provincial government to change the way it dispenses drugs to First Nations citizens.

But Stonechild is frustrated that -- despite all the publicity about the taxpayer funded prescription drug abuses -- she has seen little improvement on the federal level.

"Health Canada has to be held accountable," says Stonechild. "There's just a lot of talk and nothing is ever done by the government, and pharmacists and doctors don't really care because they are going to get paid for the prescription anyway."

Stonechild's contention that "nothing is ever done by government" is echoed in the recent Auditor General's report. Sheila Fraser says that key indicators of excess prescription drug use have soared in the last five years.

"Health Canada had 128 medium and 94 high-risk clients receiving multiple narcotics simultaneously through a combination of seven or more doctors and seven or more pharmacies," Fraser said in her report.

The Auditor General identified one case in which a single patient was able to regularly obtain large quantities of seven different narcotics through 29 different doctors and 21 different pharmacies in one year.

"They can sell these drugs on the street and we don't seem to care," says John Williams, the Conservative chair of the federal public accounts committee. "The sponsorship scandal was $100 million. This is almost four times bigger and people are dead because of it."

Williams says he is tired of watching Health Canada use privacy laws as an excuse for inaction. The government says the privacy of First Nations patients prevents the collection of personal health data which could alert pharmacists to potential abuse from multiple prescription claims.

Those privacy rights also seem to extend to pharmacies that might be ripping off the taxpayer. When Whistleblower asked for the results of the last 10 audits on suspect pharmacies -- we got a one page document with no names or details. And we learned that even the pharmacies where the greatest fraud was suspected were only fined a small amount. None of them lost their licenses.

Whistleblower asked Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh why his department wasn't shutting down the worst offenders.

"Obviously these are pharmacies in areas where there are no other pharmacies. I think it's important that we monitor these issues, that we punish the guilty but you want to make sure that people continue to get services," says Dosanjh.

The public accounts committee has given Health Canada a deadline of April 30 to submit an action plan for cleaning up the abuses in the program.

But Lorraine Stonechild says until there is firm and decisive action -- Canadian taxpayers will continue to fund an epidemic of addiction and misery in First Nations communities across this country.

• Send your tips, stories and ideas:  whistleblower@ctv.ca