Tag: Harm reduction | CATIE Blog

Scaling back harm reduction will scale up blood-borne infections

May 25, 2026 • By Rivka Kushner

Following nearly a decade of leadership in responding to the toxic drug crisis, harm reduction programs in some parts of Canada are now being scaled back. In some communities, programs like supervised consumption services and safer drug use equipment distribution are being defunded, restricted or forced to close. This is despite strong evidence that supervised consumption services prevent overdose deaths, increase safer substance use practices, increase access to healthcare including treatment and mental health services and reduce public drug use. Safer drug use distribution programs, often referred to as needle and syringe programs, prevent viral infections like hepatitis C and...

Understanding the realities of PnP with the Chemstory/Chemstories podcast

April 1, 2026 • By Patrice St-Amour

PnP (for “party ’n play,” also called chemsex) is defined as the intentional use of psychoactive substances, such as methamphetamine, GHB or ketamine, in a sexual context. Because of the strong stigma surrounding the practice, people still too often experience this in silence, shame and isolation. It’s precisely to address this issue that researcher and professor Olivier Ferlatte, director of Qollab, a research laboratory located at the University of Montreal’s School of Public Health (ESPUM), designed and conceived the Chemstory/Chemstories research-action project. The project aims to hand the mic to the people directly concerned, meaning gay, bisexual and queer men, both...

From safety to belonging: The essential elements of gender-responsive harm reduction

March 2, 2026 • By Phoenix Babiak, Katherine Rudzinski, Lindsay Windhager, Charlotte Smith and Carol Strike

As the toxic drug crisis continues to devastate communities across Canada, available supports are dwindling. In Ontario, many supervised injection services (SIS) have been shuttered by regressive and dangerous government policies. This attack on evidence-based care limits opportunities to expand and diversify harm reduction services, which is especially harmful to women, trans and non-binary people who use drugs (WTNB-PWUD) as their gender-specific needs are already often overlooked in harm reduction services. Only a small number of SIS have provided dedicated spaces for WTNB-PWUD. Looking more closely at the lessons learned from these effective models can help inform where the harm...

Inside B.C.’s decriminalization pilot as experienced by people who use drugs

January 26, 2026 • By Matthew Bonn

On January 31, 2023, British Columbia was granted an exemption from Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to implement a time-limited pilot project, in effect until January 31, 2026. The exemption allows people over the age of 18 to possess a total of 2.5 grams of certain specified unregulated drugs for personal use. The drugs included in this exemption are opioids (such as heroin, morphine and fentanyl), crack and powder cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA. The pilot exemption has been subject to strict rules and regulations since its inception. Notably, the places where possessing drugs is decriminalized have been modified several times...

Estimating how many people in Canada inject drugs

November 17, 2025 • By Public Health Agency of Canada

People who inject drugs that are not prescribed to them often experience complex health challenges and have a difficult time accessing healthcare. To make sure we can provide the services and resources that better support this community, we first need to know how big the community is and where they live. That’s why the Public Health Agency of Canada has created the report, Estimating the population size of people who inject drugs in Canada, which estimates, in 2021: The process for creating these estimates involved several steps, so let’s review them in greater detail. How we estimate the number of...

Global lessons on harm reduction policy and practice: Interview videos from the Harm Reduction International Conference

August 5, 2025 • By Christopher Hoy

CATIE attended the recent Harm Reduction International Conference (HR25) in Bogotá, Colombia. This long-running conference brings together researchers, health workers, policymakers and community experts from around the world. Four days of presentations, workshops, networking and art installations created a dynamic forum to share research and practice on harm reduction, drug policy and human rights. Organized around the theme “Sowing Change to Harvest Justice”, the conference explored the intersections of social justice, equity and peace in the context of drug policy. CATIE spoke with presenters and attendees to hear key perspectives and learnings on three themes from HR25: harm reduction and...