6th annual BC Substance Use Conference

Early Bird Registration Now Open!

×

Reserved rooms at the Marriott Pinnacle (the conference venue) are selling out quickly! We recommend booking your accommodation for the conference as soon as possible! It has come to our attention that the reserved block of rooms is nearly sold out. Conference attendees seeking accommodation can also look at nearby options including the Pinnacle Hotel Harbourfront (1133 West Hastings Street, across the street from the conference) and Coast Coal Harbour Vancouver Hotel (1180 W Hastings St, just down the street but on the same block as the conference). .

This year’s BC Substance Use Conference will be held May 31 and June 1, 2024. Early Bird registration is now open, closing April 30.

The 2024 conference theme is From Idea to Implementation: Putting Evidence, Experience, and Ways of Knowing into Action.

To enable province-wide participation, we will be offering a blended conference with both virtual and in-person options for attendance. The in-person component will be held at the Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle Downtown Hotel.

As we come together, we look forward to opportunities to share and learn about ways to implement research, clinical guidance, and clinical and lived experience into an accessible, flexible, inclusive, equitable, and person-centred system of substance use care. There will be opportunities for health professionals of all career stages and diverse stakeholder groups to meet, reconnect, and build relationships.

The conference programming will also include sessions across our research, clinical, and community-led streams that aim to highlight wise practices on culturally safe and humble approaches to substance use care and research that improves health and social outcomes for Indigenous people who use substances. Sessions include:

Keynote address:

Dr. Jaris Swidrovich
, Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and both the founder and chair of the Indigenous Pharmacy Professionals of Canada


Conference session presentations include:

    • Indigenous engagement and research
    • Challenging Indigenous-specific racism in action
    • Indigenous harm reduction
    • Cultural-based and innovative programming in correctional settings
    • Community-led and dialogue session on providing culturally safe and humble care
    • Addressing intersecting marginalization to improve substance use outcomes

Key Dates

    • Early bird registration opens: January 31
    • Abstract submission deadline: February 26
    • Award nomination deadline: March 15
    • Early bird registration closes: April 30
    • Registration for in-person attendance closes: May 24
    • Registration for virtual attendance closes: June 1

Registration details

In-person registration includes: access to all concurrent streams, the virtual conference portal as well, and a light breakfast, lunch, and coffee breaks on both days.

Virtual registration includes: access to both days but limited to Stream A & B and the BCCSU fellows oral abstracts.

We aim to provide low-barrier costs for our education and training events. If this cost is a barrier for you to attend, please write to us at [email protected].

Call for Award Nominations

Each year, annual awards are presented at the conference to recognize members of the community who have made significant contributions to substance use care in BC. We welcome all nominations.

Nominations will close on March 15, 2024 at 11:59pm. 

Call for Abstracts

To showcase the broad range of important work being done in the field of substance use care, oral and poster presentation opportunities are available to five key groups from across BC: Researchers and research teams within and beyond the BC Centre on Substance Use, Regional Health Authorities (RHA), non-profit organizations, and community groups.

In order to facilitate an appropriately inclusive representation of the experience, expertise, and innovation that informs developments in substance use care in BC, we have defined two distinctive categories for work presented at the conference:

    1. Community/programmatic abstracts (e.g., based on reports, evaluations, quality improvement projects or other programs/initiatives conducted within a Regional Health Authority, Community Action Team, or other similar setting/type of work)
    2. Research abstracts (e.g., based on a systematic study or project)

Abstract submission deadline: February 26, 2024 at 12pm PST (now closed)

BC Centre on Substance Use

400-1045 Howe St, Vancouver, BC V6Z 2A9


E: [email protected] | T: (778) 945-7616 | F: (604) 428-5183

24/7 Addiction Clinician Support Line: (778) 945-7619

Online Addiction Medicine Diploma: [email protected].


website logos footer

Copyright © 2023, BC Centre on Substance Use