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Ontario Drug Policy Research Network (ODPRN). (2024). Opioid-Related Toxicity Deaths Within Ontario Shelters. Report. Infographic. Webinar. Service Provider Resource.

Check out this AIVL project: This year, to mark “Support. Don’t Punish,” we asked our communities, “What does support look like for you?” We received nearly 50 heartfelt responses and our talented peer artists from the community turned these insights into beautiful illustrations.  See here. Beautiful.

Opioid and Stimulant Related Harms - Canada. Most recent available data on overdoses and deaths involving opioids and/or stimulants from Jan. 2016-Dec 2023 in Canada, where available.

SmokeWorks Resource Library - Here you'll find articles, publications, presentations, and safer use guides on safer smoking in harm reduction.

Nshiimenhiig - My Sisters Toolkit - A toolkit for for Indigenous women, girls, and LGBTQQIA2S individuals addressing violence prevention, protection, and perseverance for healing, wellness, and personal growth.

Two new resources from HIV Legal Network: 

• Towards Access for All: Best and Promising Practices from Low-Barrier, Harm Reduction Shelters in Canada  
• Connection, Care, Community - Drug policy affects the health of queer people and communities. Read the summary report and an agenda for action. 

Harm reduction – the current situation in Europe (European Drug Report 2024) This page is part of the European Drug Report 2024, the EMCDDA's annual overview of the drug situation in Europe.

HRI. (2024). The Cost of Complacency: A Harm Reduction Funding Crisis

Podcasts:
Craig Needles Podcast: Dr. Andrea Sereda shares her side of safe supply debate 

Woodstein Media Podcast: Katie Upham and Emily Wadden talk about Harm Reduction in the Atlantic Region. 

A Dose of Reality - a new podcast by Ensemble Moncton: Step into a world where real-life stories take center stage. This podcast dives deep into the realms of harm reduction, substance use, mental health, and the complexities of homelessness. By PWLLE. 

This Week in Addiction Medicine from ASAM | Podcast on Spotify: Piloting a Hospital-Based Rapid Methadone Initiation Protocol for Fentanyl

Webinars:
Opioid-related drug toxicity deaths in Ontario shelters | CATIE - Canada's source for HIV and hepatitis C information  - a discussion about ODPRN’s latest report. Speakers: Tara Gomes (ODPRN), Jay Sereda (DIY Community Health), James Delville (TNG), Hayley Smuts (TNG), Jase Watford (Lived Experience Advisory Group, ODPRN), Brett Wolfson-Stofko (Homes First Society).

Indigenous Culture as Healing - MetaPhi Webinar Featuring Carol Hopkins, Thunderbird Partnership

Searching for a Drug Strategy - WR Community Town Hall  Speakers: Paxton Bach (UBC), Bill Bogart (Prof. of Law), Geoff Bardwell (UoW), Tara Gomes (ODPRN, Shaleesa Ledlie (UoT), Rebecca Haines-Saah (UoC), Rebecca Penn (NSSCoP), Dan Smith (Fire Chief, Belleville, ON). 

Adapting Substance Use Care during Extreme Events BCCSU ECHO Session. Alexis Crabtree.

Kolla, G., et al. (2024). “If it wasn’t for them, I don’t think I would be here”: experiences of the first year of a safer supply program during the dual public health emergencies of COVID-19 and the drug toxicity crisis | Harm Reduction Journal

This study looks at Victoria safer supply program participant experiences to see whether the program met drug-user defined elements of an effective safer supply model. Participants in the safer supply program overwhelmingly appreciated it and felt it was lifesaving, and unlike other healthcare or treatment services they had previously accessed. Participants raised concerns that unless a wider variety of medications and ability to consume them by multiple routes of administration became available, safer supply programs would remain unable to completely replace substances from unregulated markets

Ivsins, A., et al. (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 

This study examines program-related goals and related outcomes across time. 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. Some had goals to address 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.

Mitra, S. et al. (2024). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people who use drugs in three Canadian cities: a cross-sectional analysis. Harm Reduction Journal. 
 

The HEALing Communitiies Study Consortium. (2024). Community-Based Cluster-Randomized Trial to Reduce Opioid Overdose Deaths | New England Journal of Medicine

McColl, R., et al. (2024). “No, my name’s not on the lease at all”: an interpretive phenomenological analysis of unstable housing and hepatitis C among people who inject drugs | Emerald Insight 

Lowick, AJ, et al. (2024). A sex- and gender-based analysis of alcohol treatment intervention research involving youth: A methodological systematic review | PLOS Medicine 

Laks, J., et al. (2024). Treating Benodiazepine Withdrawal in a Bridge Clinic. Journal of Addictions Medicine. 

Kahan, M. (2024). Effectiveness and Public Health Impact of Safer Supply and Opioid Agonist Treatment: A Narrative Review with Recommendations  Canadian Journal of Addiction (CSAM)

Coffin, P.O. and Barreveld, A.M. (2024). Inherited Patients Taking Opioids for Chronic Pain - Considerations for Primary Care. NEJM.

International

Global: UN report must signal end to manifestly failed ‘war on drugs’ - Amnesty International

How Scotland started to kick its alcohol problem - and what Ontario could learn from it

Nitazenes: UN sounds alarm on super-strength opioids 

NIH-funded intervention did not impact opioid-related overdose death rates over evaluation period | National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) 

Harm Reduction in the Heartland: Combating the Opioid Crisis in Appalachia - Ford Foundation 

AMA's House of Delegates Says Yes to Drug Decriminalization | MedPage Today 

National

Are Canada's Safer Supply Programs In Jeopardy?

Partial truths from politicians won’t fix the toxic drug crisis - The Hill Times  

Many ‘preconceived perceptions’ of those 'mired’ in opioid crisis | Sault Star 
 

BC

Update: Charges laid in Downtown Eastside drug investigation - Vancouver Police Department

Quinn | Live Radio | CBC Listen

“Let’s Go After This Whole Thing”—DULF Challenges Criminal Charges 

Judicial Review – Matsqui-Abbotsford Impact Society

Request for judicial review of drug recriminalization in B.C. | The Early Edition with Stephen

Island Health will provide free drug-checking stations at all major summer festivals

Pharmacies cutting prohibited payments to patients as enticement for their business, causing financial hardship - The Globe and Mail

Fact Checked: 4 Claims on Drug Deaths

Warrant reveals details behind B.C. safe-supply pill seizure | CBC News

Vancouver pioneered liberal drug policies. Fentanyl destroyed them  

AB

First Nations 'triaging grief' as opioids claim lives at more than 8 times the rate of the rest of Alberta | CBC News 

Editorial: Maybe safe supply's time has come - Cochrane News 

Inhalation rooms in safe consumption sites could save lives, Alberta advocates say | CBC News 

Sharp climb in opioid-related deaths for Red Deer in March 

SK

Removal of safe supplies has made Saskatchewan’s addiction crisis worse, experts say | Globalnews.ca 

ON

Five things to know about safer supply (June 13 Newsletter) - Peterborough Currents 

Peterborough safer supply pilot shares program evaluation amid nation-wide backlash to the approach

Conservatives, London doctor spar over safe supply comments 

Thunder Bay's mayor addresses his 'misinformed and incorrect' comments on social issues 

He lost his father and brother to fentanyl, so he wrote 'honest' death notices 

Harm reduction vending machine offers free, 24-hour access to supplies | Brantford Expositor 

Opioid deaths in Ontario shelters more than tripled during pandemic, study finds

Local health officials pull plug on Barrie's SCS application - Barrie News Faith leaders call on Ford to fund safe consumption sites | Sudbury Star 

Supervised consumption ending in Timmins, the only site in northeastern Ontario, due to lack of funding | CBC News

Alarming new drug found in Ottawa’s unregulated supply

QC

Drug addiction program to close at McGill University Health Centre | Montreal Gazette 

YK/NWT/NVT

Whitehorse residents march for safe drug policies, harm reduction | CBC.ca 

Atlantic

 As drug overdose cases rise on P.E.I., support group hears objections to rural plans | CBC News