Expansion of Civil Commitment for Substance Use Disorders—Not the Type of Commitment Our Patients Need "Conceptually, civil commitment for SUD treatment is at odds with a modern understanding of addiction" jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Our team has new qualitative research out in the Journal of Urban Health. The paper describes life in #yeg's central business district for people who use drugs. cc: @gsalvalaggio.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1...

It continues to elude me why on earth a health system would build an involuntary system of “care” BEFORE properly resourcing a voluntary one. Actually TAKING AWAY from that voluntary system, however, is egregious.

“People would often start out with tin cans.” Research documents respiratory harms among people without access to safer pipes using homemade devices to smoke crack cocaine. Participants' feedback led to development of a better pipe, reports Sydney Sauer:

naloxone is the most downstream intervention possible. we'll save your life, but first you have to die

so, a lack of evidence is not the barrier.

👀👀 “The course served both as a corrective to prior stigma-laden training and as a catalyst for deeper engagement with HR values and evidence-based practices.”

💯! Dr. Bonnie Larson: "As a physician, I consider SCS a gold-star public health intervention. It does exactly what it is designed to do with 100 per cent efficacy. Despite such success in saving lives, the UCP has been intent on shuttering Safeworks." calgaryherald.com/opinion/colu...

Intranasal Mucosal Atomiser Devices: A Novel Harm Reduction Intervention Hayden Green, Thileepan Naren, Brittany Chapman, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Sione Crawford, Dean Membrey https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.70191 Monash Addiction Research Centre, Monash University, Curtin University

Yesterday, I had the honour of tabling the Save a Life Act (Naloxone Registration and Public Access Act, 2026). This legislation would co-locate naloxone kits where publicly available automatic external debrillators (AEDs) are in our communities. #harmreduction #opioidpoisoning #health #onpoli

The Harm Reduction International Conference 2027 #HR27 website is now live!     Explore key dates and exciting opportunities for our next edition. Check back for regular updates or sign up for the newsletter to get it straight to your inbox! https://hr27.hri.global/

We have a new paper in @sajamersa.bsky.social evaluating the “scattered-site” managed alcohol program (MAP) in Halifax, Nova Scotia It was first launched during COVID- combining a central supported building + outreach to individual apartments- and sustained 1/ journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

NEW The Alberta government’s fight to close the two busiest supervised consumption sites is in the bottom of the ninth. The pinch hitter it calls to bat? A freshly minted PhD in economics nobody’s heard of. drugdatadecoded.ca/albertas-exp...

The Deadliest Drug: Alcohol kills nearly 500 Americans every day. Confronting heavy drinking could be one of the best ways to improve health and save lives, by @levfacher.bsky.social @isabellacueto.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2026/05/12/a... via @statnews.com (part 1)

From Bill Kaufmann calgaryherald.com/news/lawsuit...

You know what would solve your “crime treatment zone”? SCS, housing, drop-in spaces, stop the sweeps…. SMH www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

I applaud this MLA for taking a stand and sm tired of provincial NDP positions on drug policy more focused on electability than the evidence and saving lives.

"a surge that coincided with the closure of Prairie Harm Reduction's supervised drug consumption site." DON'T do two years of research to figure out this puzzler OPEN a Drug Consumption Space NOW #skpoli www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

New 🚨 "The Victoria SAFER Initiative: A community-based prescribed safer supply program using fentanyl formulations in Victoria, BC" "Our findings demonstrate that prescribed fentanyl options assisted in reducing reliance on the unregulated drug supply." www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We have a new paper in @cjphrcsp.bsky.social describing our efforts to improve substance use care in hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia, from 2018-2024, from the clinical frontlines and community without institutional policy support: link.springer.com/article/10.1... 1/

If you are in Nova Scotia and are over 50, the health authority mails you a free test every two years. But fewer than half the people who receive the kits return them. It's a great program. Just do the test and mail it back.

Decriminalization worked. B.C. killed it anyway The province’s drug decriminalization experiment lowered arrests and reduced harm—but it failed a different political test breachmedia.ca/decriminaliz...

www.timescolonist.com/local-news/d... It sure wasn’t, nor by the people most affected.

www.cbc.ca/news/red-dee... #ableg

The First Nations Health Authority, a health system partner to the B.C. government, said it is disappointed that it was "not engaged in a decision that will disproportionately impact First Nations people, communities and families." www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

The HRNA stands with the UBCIC and echoes the serious concerns they have raised about BC’s decision to end the decriminalization pilot. We are grateful for UBCIC’s leadership in naming the harms of returning to punitive approaches amidst this ongoing public health emergency. #bcpoli #cdnpoli

"Dr Wieman also expressed frustration at what she said was the hijacking of the narrative over B.C.'s pilot to decriminalize simple drug possession noting that it was introduced, in part, to address the overrepresentation of First Nations people in the justice system as a result of systemic racism"

this is an important statement & it cuts to the heart of the policy failure BCs decriminalization pilot didn't fail b/c it was a bad idea, the BC NDP and david eby were not willing to defend it First Nations peoples in BC died at ~7x the rate of the rest of the population in 2024

I regret B.C.’s decision to end its decriminalization pilot and am disappointed the province has not released an independent evaluation. When governments change course on life-and-death issues, Canadians deserve to see the evidence. See more 👇

Its really essential that people read the full statement and reflect on it And think honestly & bravely on what our emergency is each of us and all of us are involved in this, we are all the public Its oue emergency There’s no Them Just us ~ we are responsible to each other Please read this

"By ending the decriminalization pilot, the Province is failing to treat addiction as a public-health issue, not a criminal one, and is doubling down on policies that have already caused immense harm to First Nations." Grand Chief Stewart Phillip www.ubcic.bc.ca/ubcic_deeply...

📣 New Report: Unpaid family caregivers are doing essential and often invisible work. Our new community report 🧪shares what caregiving looks like for families supporting people who use drugs in rural Western Canada. Read more: static1.squarespace.com/static/5ac64...

Kylie's amazing #DisHist #histmed book Jim Crow in the Asylum is out today. Its also open access, so sharing the link for anyone interested in the histories of race and disability, systemic racism in medicine, histories of madness and asylums, histories of the US South, and more

Postmedia, which recently seized full control of print media in NS (happened in AB decades ago), is driving these wedges into communities that have traditionally been highly sympathetic to poverty. This will manifest as fearful news stories that create danger out of thin air. Like the story above.

“Injectable opioid agonist therapy (iOAT; IV diamorphine or hydromorphone)… may be more effective than oral OAT alone… in improving treatment retention, reducing illicit opioid and cocaine use, and decreasing interactions with the criminal justice system” 1/ canjhealthtechnol.ca/index.php/cj...

“Both diacetylmorphine and injectable hydromorphone supplemented with methadone showed favourable retention [for opioid use disorder treatment] compared to methadone and buprenorphine” link.springer.com/article/10.1...

“Heroin-assisted treatment was introduced in Switzerland in 1994 and comprises the prescription of diacetylmorphine (heroin) for patients with severe opioid use disorder. Provision … is limited to specialised treatment centres, 22 of which operate today.” link.springer.com/article/10.1...

“…we suggest there was a major disruption in the illicit fentanyl trade, possibly tied to Chinese government actions, that translated into sharp reductions in overdose mortality beginning in mid- or late-2023 and continued into 2024 across both the US and Canada.” www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1...

SCOOP 🧵 The DORS app was supposed to keep people safe while using drugs at home. But in 4 years, it has activated just 51 ambulances. The app isn't used 41% of days. Meanwhile, the AB govt is dismantling the option that works: supervised consumption. 1/ drugdatadecoded.ca/overdose-app...

In this @bmj.com opinion piece, we propose that infrastructural support, mundane process improvements, and better use of available capacity could deliver more value than some of the headline-grabbing "solutions." We propose a learning system model to help. www.bmj.com/content/392/...

Good insight here on why the decision to close SCS in Alberta is bad policy. edmontonjournal.com/news/local-n...

So *what is* a public health approach to substance use? Our latest 🧪 paper provides a systematic review of academic and grey literature and outlines a conceptual framework to guide practitioners. link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12889-025-25402-4

This is Carter’s first appointment to public office. Her reporting for Fox News and other primarily right-wing outlets has focused on transnational drug-trafficking organizations, work she's described as “mapping the enemy.”

“B.C. government unclear on whether contentious drug decriminalization policy ever really existed“

4/ The dismantling of vaccines contravenes the same fundamentals of public health. We get vaccinated not just for ourselves but to protect others. Public health principles do not change. Those who failed to uphold these principles during Covid, who cry wolf now or remain mum have much to reckon.

3/ They framed approach to public health as differing values. Rather the battle was always about upholding the principles of public health (as a collective public good we all contribute to) versus a constant onslaught that prized individualism and guarding individual privileges above all.

2/ But the truth is there‘s a direct line from then to now. Public health relies on a fundamental principle: it is collective. Instead all these experts, propped up wishy washy “You do you” health, and fueled the notion that the public had lost faith in public health. www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....