The movement for reform in this country of non-medical use of drugs seems unstoppable. There are many drivers of change and a major one is the opioid crisis.
Mental health crises have been inextricably linked to policing and criminal justice. But a mental health crisis is exactly that – a health issue, not a criminal one.
Unlike mainstream health-care providers, harm reduction workers do not have benefits like danger pay or strong unions to support them. With jobs characterized by low wages, stigma and political red-tape, overworked harm reduction professionals are seeing burnout on the front lines.
Safer Opioid Supply is an attention-grabbing, controversial approach to combatting the opioid crisis. But for all the debate, both its proponents and critics in addictions medicine tend to agree that there is much more to addressing the opioid epidemic.
A wave of benzodiazepines is adulterating Toronto’s illegal opioid market, raising risks for users, complicating the fight against the opioid crisis, and imposing extra burdens on a COVID-stretched emergency response system.
Drug users in London, Ontario, suffer from addiction-related health problems, like infectious disease, at a higher rate than the provincial average. But a permanent supervised consumption site, expected to open in mid-March 2022, could help.
British Columbia is expanding a program that prescribes alternatives to illicit drugs to people with substance use disorders. But critics warn that there are too many barriers built into the program, making it "too little, too late."
Chemotherapy-induced vomiting is a serious complication for cancer patients. Some cannabinoids treat vomiting, but can also cause a rare, dangerous vomiting disorder. What happens when a treatment exacerbates the problem it aims to fix?
The federal government's planned ban on flavoured vapes is a terrible idea that could push many ex-smokers who vape back to smoking cigarettes, resulting in a large increase in disease, disability, and death.
As COVID-19 continues to devastate the most vulnerable, like my patients with addiction, the testing and vaccination system in Ontario is set up to further disempower them.
I park my car but before I get out of the parking lot I need to check on the man and woman under their cardboard box to ensure they are still breathing.