Donate
  • en

Tag: safer drug use

  • Talking Drug Policy at the Holiday Dinner Table

    Talking Drug Policy at the Holiday Dinner Table

    alt=""

    Tips for a Tricky Topic

    1. Know Your Audience
      • Is Grandpa firmly set in his views? Or is he open to hearing new ideas? Understanding whether the person you’re speaking with is curious, uncertain, or defensive can help guide your approach.
    2. Shift Your Goal
      • Think of each conversation as an opportunity to plant a seed of curiosity. It is unlikely that someone will change their perspective in a single exchange, but it is possible to create a bit of space to consider other perspectives.
      • How can you create a learning environment, rather than a debate? Shift your focus from winning the conversation to fostering a thoughtful exchange.
    3. Connect on Shared Values
      • Look for something you can agree with, no matter how small. No one wants to feel disrespected or dismissed.
      • Even if someone expresses a belief or assumption you don’t agree with, is there a value, a concern, or a need behind it that you do? Highlighting that commonality can help pave the way for a more respectful and productive conversation.
    4. Answer Briefly and Factually
      • Instead of getting drawn into a heated back-and-forth over misinformation, calmly correct inaccuracies with clear, fact-based information.
      • Keep your response brief and pivot back to the larger conversation you want to have.
    5. Pivot to What’s Important
      • After addressing the facts, steer the conversation toward what matters most to you: the values, the impact, and the real-world consequences of drug policies.
      • Focus on what’s at stake and the changes that could lead to a more just and compassionate approach.
    6. Know When to Step Back
      • Sometimes, the best way to ensure a conversation stays on track is knowing when to wrap things up. Remember, your goal is to plant a seed of curiosity and create a learning environment.
      • Pause and revisit the discussion another time—especially if things have become unproductive.

    Now, how about some of that pie?

  • FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: National Organizations Deeply Concerned with Saskatchewan’s Health Policy Shift

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: National Organizations Deeply Concerned with Saskatchewan’s Health Policy Shift

    People who use drugs will suffer the consequences of backward-thinking and restrictive policies 

    January 26, 2024 | Two leading national human rights organizations have addressed the Saskatchewan provincial government to express profound concern over changes that restrict access to vital harm reduction supplies and safety information. The HIV Legal Network and the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition sent the letter yesterday, urging the government to reverse the changes and ground policy in evidence, human rights and best practice. 

    On January 18, Saskatchewan’s provincial health ministry announced it would stop providing clean pipes and require people to exchange a used needle to receive a sterile one, as well as stop distributing education resources on safer pipe use practices. Third-party organizations would also not be permitted to used provincial funds for these purposes. Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Tim McLeod said providing information to people who use drugs on how to stay safer, “sends the wrong message to people who we want to help.” 

    The HIV Legal Network and the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition contend these restrictions pose a severe threat to the health and safety of people in Saskatchewan, particularly those at risk of contracting hepatitis C and HIV, as well as drug poisoning and overdose.  

    “If the Saskatchewan government is concerned about sending messages with its policies, let’s be clear. The message this sends is that if you use drugs or live with addiction, the government does not care about your safety,” says DJ Larkin, executive director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition. 

    The HIV Legal Network stresses the vital role that harm reduction information and supplies play in mitigating the spread of HIV and hepatitis C. “Saskatchewan already has by far the highest rate of new HIV infections in Canada,” say Sandra Ka Hon Chu and Janet Butler-McPhee of the HIV Legal Network. “This is a reckless move, and a terrible use of public health dollars. Limiting access to cost-effective interventions proven to keep people safer – and alive – is counterproductive. Anyone who loves someone who uses drugs in Saskatchewan should be very alarmed by this backwards shift in policy.”

    Saskatchewan is already facing disproportionately high rates of HIV and hepatitis C cases. The province has the highest rate of new HIV diagnoses in Canada, according to 2022 data from the Public Health Agency of Canada. While the rate of new diagnoses of HIV in Canada is 3.8 per 100,000 people, in Saskatchewan, the rate is more than five times that, at 20.3 per 100,000 people. Hepatitis C surveillance data from 2021 shows Saskatchewan had 38.3 reported cases per 100,000 population, versus the national rate of 19.7 new cases per 100,000. 

    Information available on the government of Saskatchewan’s website recognizes the importance of sterile supplies to reduce harm, encouraging the public to “protect yourself from HIV [and] hepatitis C…use new, clean needles each time you use drugs, and do not share supplies with other people.” 

    The policy announcement comes as the Saskatchewan Coroners Service has indicated the number of drug toxicity deaths in 2023 is likely to set a provincial record, with a possible 484 lives lost. 

    “This approach is completely unsupported by any evidence,” says Larkin. “None of this will stop people from using drugs. It will only stop people from getting the information and supplies they need to stay safer. People in Saskatchewan will be hurt by this decision.” 

    Local organizations offering programs and services to support those actively using or affected by substance use worry the decision will harm marginalized communities, hamper efforts to connect people to supports, and put further strain on grassroots organizations already providing life-saving services on shoestring budgets.  

    “Our funding already falls short of what’s needed to support the 300 people who regularly access our services,” says Kayla DeMong of Prairie Harm Reduction. “We’re not willing to abandon people, so we’ll have to find a way to fund the supplies on our own. The fact that the government is making our work harder is so disheartening.” 

    The joint letter urges officials to reverse the changes, and engage in open dialogue with the organizations, people with lived and living experience, public health experts, frontline workers, and other stakeholders to explore approaches grounded in evidence that prioritize the health and safety of all Saskatchewan residents. 

    Read the open letter here. 

    -30- 

    Media Contact: 

    To arrange interviews, email: [email protected]

    About the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition 

    Founded in 2010, the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition works in partnership with more than 60 organizations and 7,000 individuals working to support the development of a drug policy for Canada that is based in science, guided by public health principles, respectful of the human rights of all, and seeks to include people who use drugs and those harmed by the war on drugs in moving towards a healthier society. Learn more at www.drugpolicy.ca 

    About HIV Legal Network 

    The HIV Legal Network promotes the human rights of people living with HIV or AIDS and other populations disproportionately affected by HIV, punitive laws and policies, and criminalization, in Canada and internationally. We do this through research and analysis, litigation and other advocacy, public education, and community mobilization. Learn more at www.hivlegalnetwork.ca 

    About Prairie Harm Reduction

    Prairie Harm Reduction is a community based non-profit organization, in the heart of the inner city of Saskatoon, whose mission is to improve the quality of life for all members of our community through gold standards in harm reduction, emphasizing local action with national impact. www.prairiehr.ca

  • Canadian Drug Policy Coalition/ Doalition canadienne des politiques sur les drogues

    For Immediate Release: Nationwide Support Rallies as Vancouver Police Target Safe Drug Supply Program

    Vancouver, BC | October 27, 2023 —

    Advocates, community organizations and concerned members of the public across the country are adding their names to an open letter condemning the October 25 arrests of members of the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF). 

    Please see below for our response to the criminalization of the Drug User Liberation Front’s heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine compassion club in Vancouver, and view the live document which will be updated continuously with new signatories.

    Media are invited to contact organizations listed among the signatories directly for comment. 

    Canadian Drug Policy Media Contact: [email protected]

    RE: Vancouver Police Press Release, “VPD executes search warrants in Downtown Eastside drug investigation”

    To:

    Vancouver Police Department

    City of Vancouver, and

    Province of British Columbia: 

    The signatories of this letter condemn the criminalization of community-regulated safe drug supply distribution in Vancouver on October 25, 2023, executed through search warrants, arrests and interrogations by Vancouver Police Department. 

    Unregulated drug toxicity is the leading cause of death in BC for persons aged 10 to 59, accounting for more deaths than homicides, suicides, accidents and natural diseases combined. In this urgent context, the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) operates a compassion club to save lives and reduce the harms of the unregulated drug market. 

    DULF has been public about its activities since its first safe supply action on April 14, 2021. Its second action in July 2021 was conducted in plain sight of a Vancouver Police Department station with officers in attendance. In 2022, the City of Vancouver issued a business license to DULF. That year, the Province of BC initiated a $200,000 grant through Vancouver Coastal Health to help cover DULF’s overhead costs. 

    DULF was transparent in its application for a Controlled Drugs and Substances Act exemption to the Government of Canada, publishing both its application and the Government’s denial of the exemption for public examination. 

    DULF has conducted formal evaluation of its compassion club in partnership with qualified researchers at the BC Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU). The data show the program is keeping people alive and in better health, with lower reliance on criminal activity. The removal of funding not only hinders DULF’s compassion club, it closes down a critical overdose prevention site – an outcome with legal precedent to be reversed.

    The statement issued by Vancouver Police on October 26, 2023 is an apparent attempt to distance governments and police from the active and passive roles that each have played in DULF’s activities while political backlash builds against safe supply more broadly.

    International reporting on DULF includes articles in Time Magazine and The Guardian. It is inconceivable that any institution operating in drug policy or enforcement could have remained unaware that DULF operates a compassion club. 

    If political institutions took issue with DULF’s activities, carried out with a clear aim to minimize harms to its community while more than 2,000 people are killed each year in BC by policy inaction, they had ample opportunity to respond when DULF distributed regulated drugs in front of a Vancouver Police station in 2021, requested a business license from the City of Vancouver, and approached Vancouver Coastal Health for funding. 

    Given the transparency with which DULF has operated, it is fair to conclude that these institutions are disingenuously betraying people who are at risk of death while a seven-year unmitigated public health emergency persists.

    In solidarity with DULF, the signatories of this letter demand that Vancouver Police, the City of Vancouver, and the Province of BC: 

    • Immediately cease criminalizing community-regulated safe supply in BC;
    • Restore DULF funding cut by Vancouver Coastal Health; 
    • Formalize a commitment to create a framework to uphold and protect community-regulated safe supply in BC. 

    To view the growing live list of signatories, including individuals, click here. 

    MEDIA: Please engage organizations directly from the list below. 

    Signed: 

    National Organizations

    Canadian Association of People Who Use Drugs

    Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy 

    Canadian Drug Policy Coalition

    CATIE: Canada’s Source for HIV and Hepatitis C Information

    Drug Policy Alliance (USA)

    EACH+EVERY: Businesses for Harm Reduction

    Harm Reduction Nurses Association

    HIV Legal Network

    International Network of People who Use Drugs

    Moms Stop The Harm

    Regional Organizations

    4B Harm Reduction Society, Edmonton, AB

    Alberta Alliance Who Educate and Advocate Responsibly, AB

    Bonfire Counselling, Vancouver, BC

    Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy – Vancouver, Vancouver, BC

    Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy – Calgary, Calgary, AB

    Coalition of Substance Users of the North (CSUN), Lhtako Dene Nation, BC

    Corporación ATS / Echele Cabeza, Colombia

    Disability Arts & Activism Archive, BC

    Harrogate Psychological Services, Edmonton, AB

    HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario (HALCO), ON

    Kootenay Independent Safe Supply Society, Nelson, BC

    Kootenay Insurrection for Safe Supply, Nelson, BC

    Kykeon Analytics Ltd, Victoria, BC

    Langley Community Action Team: We All Play a ROLE, Langley, BC

    Medicine Hat Drug Coalition, Medicine Hat, AB

    Metzineres – Refuge Environments for Drug Users, Barcelona, Spain

    PAN, Vancouver, BC

    Sure Shot Harm Reduction, Ottawa, ON

    People For Reproductive Rights and Freedoms, Edmonton, AB

    Pivot Legal Society, Vancouver, BC

    Prairie Harm Reduction, Saskatoon, SK

    Project SAFE, Philadelphia, USA

    REMA Feminist & Antiprohibitionist Network, Spain

    Ryan’s Hope, Barrie, ON

    SafeLink Alberta, AB

    SAFER Victoria, Victoria, BC

    Solid Outreach Society, Victoria, BC

    Student Overdose Prevention and Education Network, Hamilton, ON

    The POUNDS Project, Prince George, BC

    Toronto Overdose Prevention Society, Toronto, ON

    Tri-Cities Community Action Team, Tri-Cities, BC

    United For Change Edmonton, Edmonton, AB

    Vancouver Community Action Team, Vancouver, BC

    We Care Substance Use Resource Society, BC

    Workers for Ethical Substance Use Policy, Vancouver, BC

    Whistler Community Services Society, Whistler, BC

    WILD collaborative harm reduction association, Vancouver Island, BC

    Your Journey, Airdrie, AB

    Youth RISE, Edmonton, AB

    -30-

  • When law and policy is unjust, communities have no choice but to act.

    When law and policy is unjust, communities have no choice but to act.

    The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) arrest of Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) founders on October 25th, 2023 is an act of political and moral cowardice.  

    In the context of unrelenting loss driven by the unregulated drug market, DULF has taken courageous and ethical action to supply safety-tested substances to people who use drugs at great personal risk of arrest under Canada’s controlled substances laws.  

    DULF’s work saves lives. Through their small, community-led model of safe supply, they have demonstrated how access to safety-tested drugs of known potency and contents can reduce overdose, keep people alive, reduce hospitalizations and stabilize lives. DULF’s work has support from leading researchers, physicians and health care providers, public health officials, and community groups. 

    DULF has been transparent and communicative about their actions. They have made every effort to proceed legally, including by applying for an exemption from Health Canada which was denied last year. In the midst of the ongoing unregulated drug crisis, DULF made the ethical choice to proceed without formal approval.  

    The VPD chose to enforce these unjust laws after more than a year of DULF’s compassion club operating in plain sight. There is no conceivable possibility that the VPD, the City of Vancouver, the Province of BC or any other public or private actor with any familiarity with the drug policy landscape in Canada has been unaware of DULF’s actions since their first action. Police have discretion as to when, where and how to enforce the law — they chose the path of harm, and they did not have to.  

    When law and policy is unjust, communities have no choice but to act. The VPD themselves agree that their actions could “absolutely” result in drug users who rely on the compassion club’s services consuming more dangerous substances. Premier David Eby said earlier this week that while DULF is doing life-saving work, the government cannot tolerate illegal activity. The BC government and the VPD are using the law as a shield to justify what even the VPD admit is a dangerous and harmful act.  

    People who use drugs have long known they must take care of each other in the face of government violence and neglect. Sterile needle distribution was once illegal; Insite, Canada’s first legal safe injection site, overcame multiple legal challenges to exist. History has demonstrated that drug law and policy change lag far behind need, and that governments will eventually adopt the lifesaving responses that communities of drug users initiate. We believe this pattern will be replicated, and that history will once again vindicate DULF’s actions.  

    Until then, we unequivocally assert our support for DULF founders and their life-saving work. Inspired by them, we will continue to advocate for urgent and vital reforms to drug law and policy with every tool we have.

  • Overdose prevention and response during COVID-19

    Overdose prevention and response during COVID-19

    Overdose prevention and response during COVID-19, Overdose prevention and response during COVID-19

    Download PDF
    Download Doc

    Click HERE for more resources

  • Supporting people who use drugs in acute care settings during COVID-19

    Supporting people who use drugs in acute care settings during COVID-19

    supporting people who use drugs in acute care, supporting people who use drugs in acute care

    Download PDF

    Click HERE for more resources

    “This document is one of a series of six national guidance documents, rapidly developed by the CRISM network at the request of the Government of Canada. Collectively, the six documents address urgent needs of people who use drugs, service providers, and decision makers in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. The urgent nature of this work required rapid development and dissemination of this guidance. This, and the continuing evolution of the knowledge base regarding COVID-19, precluded CRISM from conducting a comprehensive review of the relevant literature. However, when available, scientific evidence is cited in support of the expert advice offered herein.

    The guidance provided in this document is subject to change as new information becomes available. Readers should note that the intent of this document is to provide general guidance rather than detailed procedural and logistical advice. Readers are advised to consult local Public Health and medical authorities for specific input on navigating their own unique regulatory and policy environments, as necessary.”

    Source: CRISM

  • Expanded Response Options to Opioid Harms: Case Study from Four Cities

    Expanded Response Options to Opioid Harms: Case Study from Four Cities

    CCSA case study, CCSA case study

    Download PDF

    Click HERE for more resources

    “Canada is facing an urgent challenge to reduce the harms associated
    with the problematic use of opioids. More than 14,700 lives were lost to deaths apparently related to opioids between January 2016 and September 2019. During that same period, there were 19,490 hospitalizations for poisoning related opioid to opioids (Special Advisory Committee on the Epidemic of Opioid Overdoses, 2019). The COVID-19 pandemic compounds this ongoing public health crisis. There is a heightened need to reduce avoidable pressures on healthcare systems and support people who use opioids who may be at increased risk or unable to self-isolate during the pandemic.”

    Source: Canadian Centre on Substance Use

  • Harm Reduction and COVID-19 Guidance for Service Providers

    Harm Reduction and COVID-19 Guidance for Service Providers

    Alberta health services covid guidance, Alberta health services covid guidance

    Download PDF

    Click HERE for more resources

    “This guidance document for community service providers was prepared by the Alberta Health Services (AHS) Harm Reduction Services Team in partnership with the Alberta Community Council on HIV (ACCH). It covers information on how community services may alter harm reduction practices during the COVID-19 pandemic with the goal of reducing the spread of COVID-19. This information can also be used by service providers to communicate information and education on reducing spread of COVID-19 while maintaining health and wellness along the spectrum of substance use.”

  • COVID-19 Stimulant Use and Harm Reduction

    COVID-19 Stimulant Use and Harm Reduction

    Covid 19 stimulant use covid 19 stimulant use

    Download PDF

    Click HERE for more resources

    “The following is a non-exhaustive tip sheet for stimulant-preferring or polydrug users, focusing on amphetamines, cocaine and crack cocaine. While COVID-19 is primarily considered a respiratory infection, our heart and breathing systems are highly interdependent.

    Stimulant use—including cocaine and amphetamines—can have a number of negative effects on heart health. Cocaine and amphetamine use can each lead to very dangerous, sometimes fatal consequences, including very high blood pressure, heart attacks, irregular heart rhythms, stroke, and other kinds of damage to the heart.”

    Source: Vital Strategies