Harm reduction & Safe supply

Three years after its first‐​in‐​the‐​nation drug decriminalization measure (Measure 110) went into effect, Oregon’s lawmakers are poised to re‐​criminalize possessing and using drugs. Lawmakers note that Oregon’s overdose rate has risen dramatically and exceeded the national average since Measure 110 took effect in 2021.

Among those not placed, the encampment clearing tended to exacerbate health and safety concerns, especially those related to mental health conditions and risk for violence.

Harm reduction workers in Ottawa say animal tranquilizers in the city's street drug supply are putting users at even greater risk of severe harm.

A survey by the Kingston region's public health unit found 63 per cent of respondents would support decriminalizing drugs, with some concerns over the potential community impact.

Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington (KFL&A) Public Health surveyed more than 1,800 people who live or work there to gauge community support for a decriminalization policy, which in Canada exists only in British Columbia.

A drug testing service in Toronto says it has detected a new, highly potent animal tranquilizer circulating in the city's unregulated drug supply.

Toronto's Drug Checking Service (TDCS), a free and anonymous public health service offered at five harm reduction agencies, said in a Jan. 29 alert that it first identified a substance that is either medetomidine or dexmedetomidine late last month.

"Both are used to put either animals or people into deep states of sedation and we are finding this drug or drugs in the unregulated fentanyl supply," said TDCS manager Hayley Thompson.

Harm reduction services like needle exchanges and supervised consumption sites have been a topic of heated debate on P.E.I. CBC's Tony Davis talks to advocates and public health officials about what harm reduction is, and how those services are intended to work.