Harm reduction & Safe supply

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.

Genetic testing for risk also fails to address existing disparities in treatment and outcomes. Although white people are most likely to experience opioid use disorder, overdose rates are disproportionately increasing in Black populations. This is partially due to inequitable access to safe and effective medicines like Naloxone, which can prevent overdose deaths. A 2021 study found that women, Black adults, people who were unemployed, or those living in nonmetropolitan areas were significantly less likely to access opioid use disorder medications. Using a biased genetic screener could exacerbate these disparities.

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ progressive measures to address the smoking problem achieved a milestone with the passage of the Vape Law, but the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global tobacco control treaty continues to disregard harm reduction as a proven approach to help smokers quit.

The most destructive year in San Francisco’s drug epidemic has ended with 806 people dead from accidental overdoses. About 8 in 10 of those deaths involved fentanyl, the cheap and potent synthetic opioid. The previous record of 726, set in 2020, followed the COVID-19 outbreak. Overdose deaths in the city had been rising, with an alarming uptick in 2018 as fentanyl became increasingly available.

A doctor at the only addictions clinic in Hope, with a population of about 6,700, said the town is seeing more people killed by toxic drugs per capita than anywhere else in B.C., due to a dearth of treatment, support and reliable transportation.

A right wing backlash against harm reduction and safe supply is brewing in Canada. Garth Mullins and Sam Fenn tell the story of how we got here — and what needs to be done to fight back.

https://www.crackdownpod.com/about:

Crackdown tells the story of drug user activism in the face of hostility and neglect.

Crackdown is led by people who use drugs.

Crackdown’s Editorial Board consists of some of Vancouver’s most tenacious drug user activists, including members of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, the BC Association of People on Opioid Maintenance, and the Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society.

The FSIN says First Nations people are disproportionately affected by this issue and calls the new policy unacceptable and needing to change. It told the minister in charge, “You are responsible for listening to and respecting First Nations' voices and working with us to find culturally appropriate and effective solutions."