Meeting Minutes:

Meeting minutes can be found in the meeting notes and resources folder on the National Safer Supply Community of Practice Google Drive.

• Crackdown Podcast: Episode 28 - After the Flood
  A new episode of the Crackdown Podcast is here! Here is a brief introduction to the episode: "2021 was a year of very ominous weather reports. There were unprecedented heat emergencies, wildfires, and Biblical floods. Meanwhile, COVID-19, income inequality, and the overdose crisis continued to become more and more grim. What would it feel like to endure all of this as a young person? What would it be like to try to build a life through the chaos? To find out, we asked Rainbow, a young woman in her 20s, to record big and small moments from her life for 40 days. This is Rainbow’s story."
   
• Beyond Stigma: Treating Pain and Opioid Use Disorder
  This animated video was created to explore the impact of stigma on all aspects of treatment for people living with opioid use disorder. It was created in collaboration with academics, clinicians, and people with lived experience. This video was endorsed and disseminated widely to both national and international audiences.
   
• COVID-19 Opioid Agonist Treatment Guidance – January 5, 2022 Update
  The "COVID-19 Opioid Agonist Treatment (OAT) Guidance" was created in March 2020 to help support ongoing access to OAT care when public health recommendations emphasized limiting non-essential in-person contacts in all settings in order to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. As of January 3rd, 2022, the Government of Ontario has announced time-limited measures to preserve hospital capacity in the face of the Omicron variant. While not as extensive as the initial lock-down implemented in 2020, these measures include closing or drastically reducing indoor gatherings and encouraging work from home whenever possible. In light of these measures and to support patients in being able to engage in public health precautions, it is recommended that clinicians once again consider utilizing the COVID-19 OAT Guidance as a framework for guiding decision-making around take-home doses, the necessity of in-person visits, and the use of virtual care.
   
• Grieving Overdose Zine: Your Grief Matters and So Do You
  This is a zine about death, overdose, grief, and drugs. On August 31, 2021, the DOPE Project at the National Harm Reduction Coalition worked with artist Gaia Wxyz to create a single-page zine as an act of care for a community that experiences too much preventable loss. You can read the zine, print, and fold your own at home on 8.5″ by 11″ paper and distribute them to friends, family, program participants, and direct service workers in your community.

Ferguson, M., et al. 2022. Investigating opioid preference to inform safe supply services: A cross-sectional study | International Journal of Drug Policy

Background: The drug toxicity crisis continues to be a significant cause of death. Over 24,600 people died from opioid toxicity in Canada over the last 5 years. Safe supply programs are required now more than ever to address the high rate of drug toxicity overdose deaths caused by illicit fentanyl and its analogues. This study aims to identify opioid preferences and associated variables to inform further phases of safe supply program implementation.

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We encourage NSS-CoP members to email safersupplyon@gmail.com with submissions to include in our newsletter. Content examples include but are not limited to community-led projects, peer-reviewed articles, grey literature, government publications, etc.

• Tookes, H. E., et al. 2021. Acceptability, Feasibility, and Pilot Results of the Tele-Harm Reduction Intervention for Rapid Initiation of Antiretrovirals among People Who Inject Drugs | Science Direct
• Wallace, B., et al. 2021. The potential impacts of community drug checking within the overdose crisis: qualitative study exploring the perspective of prospective service users | BMC

• Drug users and health workers question government-issued merchandise in Stop Overdose campaign

• As physicians, the ‘safe supply’ of opioids is one of the best tools we have to tackle Canada’s drug-poisoning crisis

• Facing increasing toxic drug supply, advocates call for decriminalization

• How two doctors are changing the rules in the fight against opioid addiction

• After losing her son to opioids, this Alberta mom is on a mission to change how the crisis is handled

• Overdoses from tainted drugs more likely in N.L. as street supply dries up, advocates warn

• Benzodiazepines 'a major problem' in illicit drug supply

• As opioid deaths spike among Blood Tribe in southern Alberta, some share stories of hope

• Users of Alberta's supervised consumption sites will still have to provide personal health numbers, after court tosses injunction application

• Record number of Sask. people died from drug toxicity in 2021

• 'I don't think anybody is safe from this': Courtenay overdose calls more than double

• Prevention Centers Save Lives, But Only Radical Change Will End the Overdose Crisis

• Opinion: It’s a new year, time for a new approach to end overdose

• B.C. paramedics responded to more drug poisoning calls than ever in 2021

• Richmond Hill woman wants answers after 'high-risk' niece dies of a drug OD at Toronto shelter-hotel