New Organization Alert: RECLAIM Collective

RECLAIM Collective is a group of professionals with lived experience who are united in the fight for transformative change. We have worked across Canada, advocating to end failed drug policies and with the goal of reclaiming our collective labour. With firsthand understanding of the challenges faced by people who use drugs, we are committed to improving the quality of life for our community through compassionate, evidence-based approaches.

Together we amplify the voices of those often silenced, pushing for solutions prioritizing dignity, health, and human rights. Whether it’s advocating for safe supply, affordable housing, mental health supports, or equitable healthcare, our collective strives for a just society where people who use drugs are empowered and supported.

Join us on this journey of advocacy, education, and solidarity as we continue to challenge harmful systems and build a brighter, more compassionate future for all.
Visit our website to learn about our team and about the services we provide.

CDPE. 2024. Supervised Consumption Services in Toronto - Evidence and Recommendations.

Upcoming Webinars
CDPC. Getting To Tomorrow: 7 Actions to End the Unregulated Drug Crisis. Dec. 4th, 1 pm ET. Register.
 

Equity Watch Webinar: Don’t argue with them: What really works to change hearts and minds
Wednesday, 11 December, 2024, 4:30 pm Atlantic; 3:30 Eastern - Register
Sarah Stein Lubrano, Phd, and Max Haiven Phd run Sense & Solidarity, an organization that hosts workshops and podcasts that help social movements understand what really works to change hearts and minds. In this presentation, they offer some key points from their research and engagements with activists. They ask us to think again about ideology: dominant and often oppressive ideas and paradigms that most people take for their own unique thoughts. Challenging ideology is not as easy or straightforward as it seems. For example, arguing with people and “proving them wrong” almost never works. What does?

Ivsins, A., Mansoor, M., Bowles, J., and Bardwell, G. 2024. Reasons for enrolling in safer supply programs: A longitudinal qualitative study on participant goals and related outcomes in the MySafe program: Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs 

Objective: Safer supply programs are a novel response to the ongoing overdose crisis in Canada—providing people at high overdose risk with a safer alternative to the highly toxic unregulated drug supply. The MySafe program provides pharmaceutical-grade opioids to participants via biometric dispensing machines. This study examines program-related goals and related outcomes across time.

Method: Longitudinal, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 29 study participants at baseline and 1-year follow-up. Interviews covered program functionality, experiences, outcomes, and reasons for enrollment and engagement. Baseline and follow-up interviews were compared to explore changes over time, including the effectiveness of the MySafe program in supporting individuals' achievement of their stated goals.

Results: Most participants reported similar goals at their baseline and follow-up interviews. The most common goal for initiating and staying in the program was to stop or reduce using street-purchased drugs, followed by abstinence and wanting to stop injecting drugs. Several participants described goals addressing issues related to structural vulnerability (e.g., improving living situations). At follow-up, some participants reported reducing street-purchased drug use, no participants reported abstinence, and all those wanting to stop injecting drugs reported achieving their goals.

Conclusions: Our findings highlight a strong desire among study participants to be separated from the unpredictable street drug supply. Participants reported variable success in attaining their stated goals. However, our results demonstrate the need for such programs to better attend to participant goals, especially those affected by structural vulnerability, that can be supported with wrap-around social and health care supports

Crépault, et al. 2024. Substance use as a public health issue: A critical review of the Canadian literature, 1896–2020 

Langlois, et al. 2024. Comparative Effectiveness of Buprenorphine/Naloxone and Methadone on Methamphetamine/Amphetamine Use Among People with Opioid Use Disorder in Canada - Jenna Langlois, Nadia Fairbairn, Didier Jutras-Aswad, Bernard Le Foll, Keith Ahamad, Ron Lim, M. Eugenia Socías, 2024 

Ritter, A. And Barrett, L. 2024. People who use drugs and the right to health | Harm Reduction Journal 
Palis, et al. 2024. Chronic disease diagnoses and health service use among people who died of illicit drug toxicity in British Columbia, Canada | BMC Medicine

del Pozo, et al. 2024. Police Opioid Seizures and Increased Risk of Fatal Overdose: A Causal Model 

Wickremsinhe, et al., 2024. Improving hospital care for people who use drugs: deliberative process development of a clinical guideline for opioid withdrawal management | Harm Reduction Journal 

Labonte, R. 2024. Public health can no longer fence-sit politically 

Yakovenko, et. al. 2024. Management of opioid use disorder: 2024 update to the national clinical practice guideline | CMAJ 

McCracken, et al., 2024. "Tethered to this ball and chain": Women's perspectives on bodily agency within opioid treatment programs 

Fine, et al. 2024. A hospital-based intervention to improve access to buprenorphine for patients with OUD 

Lavalley, et al. 2024. “They talk about it like it's an overdose crisis when in fact it's basically genocide”: The experiences of Indigenous peoples who use illicit drugs in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside neighbourhood  

Kazemitabar, et al. 2024. Prescription Opioid Dose Change Before Fatal Opioid-Detected Overdose: Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs: Vol 85, No 6 

Abram, et al. 2024. Harm Reduction as a form of “Wraparound Care”: the Nursing Role

Winter and Manson. 2024. Publics in local media reporting on harm reduction: Rightfully worried local witnesses or uneducated obstacles to change  

Swaich, et al. 2024. Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the availability and retail price of unregulated drugs in Vancouver, Canada: An interrupted time-series analysis, 2018-2022   

Maclean, et al. 2024. How does climate change impact people who use alcohol and other drugs? A scoping review of peer reviewed literature  

Morton, et al. 2024. Community alcohol sales and opioid poisoning deaths: Alcohol serving space as a harm reduction opportunity 

Irwin, et al. 2024. “I go out of my way to give them an extra smile now:” A study of pharmacists who participated in Respond to Prevent, a community pharmacy intervention to accelerate provision of harm reduction materials - ScienceDirect 

International

Opinion | Why Drug Overdose Deaths Are Dropping for Some, Rising for Others   

Imagine a Drug That Feels Like Tylenol and Works Like OxyContin - The Atlantic

Nitazenes are spreading like wildfire, drug charity warns

Report finds 'false positive' field drug tests lead to wrongful convictions 

"War on Cartels" and Harm Reduction "in Peril"—Drug Policy Under Trump

Trump's tariff threat throws a spotlight on the whack-a-mole trade in drug precursors    

Is the China-US fentanyl pipeline really responsible for the US opioid crisis?

Philippines: Coercion and abuse disguised as “rehabilitation” at drug detention centres 
Forced into treatment

National

BC

B.C.'s suspension of work on Vancouver Island hospital overdose prevention sites under scrutiny  

Overdose-prevention sites at three Island hospitals still a possibility: Health Ministry 

Vancouver Island doctors set up overdose prevention sites — without government blessing 

'Saving lives is not controversial': B.C. doctors set up 'unsanctioned' overdose prevention sites at hospitals 

Emotional, Challenging Week for Unsanctioned Vancouver Island Overdose Prevention Sites   

B.C. can sue opioid providers for health-care costs on behalf of other governments, Canada's top court rules   

Canada top court rules multi-crown litigation provision constitutional in opioid class action   

B.C. pharmacist wins $8K in human rights complaint over use of opioid replacement meds   

MSTH co-founder says walking back harm reduction wrong choice amid increasing threat of highly toxic illicit drugs - My Comox Valley Now 

Pilot harm reduction team planned for Langley Township 

Fearing the worst, this B.C. mom hired a private eye to track her daughter's drug dealer  

B.C. revamps overdose strategy after Mental Health and Addictions ministry scrapped

AB

HIV rates in Alberta are up 73%, nearly doubled since 2019 

Addictions and mental health minister says Alberta recovery model 'proving results' 

'Absolutely crucial': Alberta plans to open new addiction recovery centre for youth in Edmonton remand centre

SK 

Prairie Harm Reduction opens 24 hours a day to keep people off Saskatoon streets   

MB

Voices of youth living with addictions highlighted in Manitoba child advocate report - Winnipeg  

ON - for media coverage of the Ontario CTS closures and HART hubs - please see this

Ontario Building Safer and Stronger Communities (Province of Ontario news release) 

Ontario proposes fast-tracking drug-consumption-site bill, skipping public hearings | TVO Today 

Toronto safe consumption sites: Hundreds will lose access due to closures, study says  Ontario tables bill to ban some supervised consumption sites | CBC News 

London police chief urged to 'set record straight' on safe supply programs

'Serious challenges' caused by opioid prescription diversion, London police chief tells MPs    

'There are people using this as a politicization': Head of Intercommunity Health condemns politicians over Safe Supply criticisms 

Ontario inmates at 'extremely high risk' of death from opioids, Hamilton doctor tells inquest   

New clinic opens to help those with opioid addiction in Brantford 

Encampments and Opioid Crisis | AMO 

QC

YK/NWT/NVT

Yukon MLA Annie Blake opens up about her path toward recovery | CBC News  

Atlantic

Record numbers of safe use drug supplies distributed in N.L. this year  

NL Health Services Promoting Naloxone Use After Dangerous New Drugs Seized  

Rising opioid overdose deaths should be N.S. election issue, advocate says   

Health Canada exemption has been beneficial in N.S., says College of Pharmacists CEO