Tag: Harm reduction

Arriving in Bogotá at the Harm Reduction International Conference, I felt the threads of my life weave together in a way I hadn’t expected. I’ve spent years working in harm reduction in Canada while maintaining deep ties to Colombia, where much of my family still lives. But I saw something revolutionary during my recent visit: a nation once synonymous with the war on drugs now leading the global charge toward a more compassionate and pragmatic approach. The cost of failure Colombia has had a long and complex relationship with drugs, one fraught with pain and grief. For decades, the U.S.-backed...

Despite what many may think due to the recent spotlight on the expansion of involuntary treatment in British Columbia, involuntary treatment for substance use already happens in B.C. Involuntary treatment refers to psychiatric treatment that is administered to a person without their consent and it is usually used for those with mental health and/or substance use health issues. It can happen under various acts in B.C., including the Mental Health Act. Of people detained and involuntarily treated under the B.C. Mental Health Act, 1 in 5 have a primary diagnosis of substance use disorder. This makes substance use disorder the...

The toxic drug crisis has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Canadians. However, non-fatal drug toxicity events (also called overdoses) are much more common than fatal events. Brain injury is a lesser known harm related to drug toxicity that can happen when people survive a drug poisoning event. A brain injury affects how the brain works. It can occur during a drug toxicity event because breathing slows down or stops and there is a lack of oxygen to the brain. CATIE spoke to Shanell Twan, assistant manager at Streetworks, a harm reduction program in Edmonton, and Dr. Kaylynn...

Harm reduction has many definitions but in essence is an evidence-based and person-centred approach that seeks to reduce the harms associated with substance use. It provides people who use drugs with resources to make healthier and safer choices without insisting on abstinence. I have worked in harm reduction and substance use for 20 years, including 18 years as medical lead for harm reduction at the BC Centre for Disease Control. During that time, I was privileged to collaborate with many compassionate colleagues across different sectors and alongside the experts, people with lived and living experience of substance use. In the...