The growing need to adapt services to address the changing modes of drug...
Early this year, the BC Coroners Service released a report looking at mode of drug consumption and risk of fatal drug poisoning. The data confirmed what many have known for some time – the way people...
View ArticleConcerns with the recent rapid review of safer supply interventions
In December 2021, the government of Alberta established the Select Special Committee to Examine Safe Supply. The Committee was created as deaths from the toxic illicit drug supply continue to rise both...
View Article2022 BC Substance Use Conference Awards
Every year, the BC Centre on Substance Use brings together stakeholders from across the province for its annual conference. This year we hosted our 4th annual conference virtually over two days, with...
View ArticleThrough their eyes: Listening to 2SLGBTQIA+ youth about their experiences...
Youth have unique experiences with opioids and the myriad systems of care. That’s especially true for those who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+. Listening to those youth about their experiences with opioids can...
View Article“Youth who use drugs become adults who use drugs”
Vancouver and Lisbon, while worlds apart, are both boasted for their global leadership in innovating progressive harm reduction policies and services. A group of researchers from both cities partnered...
View Article10,000 lives
At least 1,095 British Columbians are believed to have been lost to the toxic drug supply between January and June 2022, according to preliminary data released by the BC Coroners Service on August 16....
View ArticleMore harm: Decamping and displacing unhoused people
Last week the City of Vancouver forcibly displaced people living in tents along Hastings Street on the Downtown Eastside. City workers and police removed people and their possessions, the majority of...
View ArticleAll About Drug Checking: The People Behind the Machines
In a job that’s part outreach, part technical, drug checking technicians play a pivotal role in community harm reduction. Community drug checking services started being offered in 2017 in response to...
View ArticleNew RN & RPN Certified Practice for Opioid Use Disorder
The BC College of Nurses and Midwives (BCCNM) has approved new and amended standards, limits, and conditions creating a new designation of certified practice for opioid use disorder (OUD) for...
View ArticleStatement on BCCSU Research Independence
It is common practice in the health system to evaluate novel (ie. new, different, or innovative) solutions to urgent and emerging public health crises. Examples of previous such life-saving research...
View ArticleAll About Drug Checking (Part 2): The Team and the Tech of Music Festivals
Summer time in British Columbia means the start of music festival season and one of the busiest times of year for drug checking. There were 735 samples checked at Bass Coast alone this year, according...
View ArticleAll About Drug Checking (Part 3): Check’It! Peer-led Drug Checking at...
Including people with lived and living experience in harm reduction services is an essential component to any interventions’ success, and drug checking is no exception. Mountainside Harm Reduction...
View ArticleYoung people at the centre of the toxic drug poisoning crisis
Vancouver may be considered by many as the “best place” to live, but many young people living in the city are facing unprecedented challenges that are making their futures more precarious than ever....
View ArticleDriving Actionable Drug Policy Research: The At-Risk Youth Study Team
The ARYS team at the Granville office The drug poisoning crisis in British Columbia and Canada is having devastating effects on young people and their loved ones. Since an official public health...
View ArticleQ & A with Michelle Bridgeman
The At-Risk Youth Study (ARYS – pronounced ‘Arise') began in 2005 at the BC Centre on Substance Use to bridge these gaps. The study evaluates programs and services through data based on the lived...
View Article“Painting the Full Picture”: A lens on the nuances behind 2SLGBTQIA+ youth...
Christian Barborini (left) and Trevor Goodyear (right) Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and/or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, and other sexual and gender minority (2SLGBTQIA+)...
View ArticleQ & A with Carmen Verdicchio
The At-Risk Youth Study (ARYS – pronounced ‘Arise’) was created in 2005 at the BC Centre on Substance Use to evaluate programs and services available for street-involved youth who use substances. The...
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