Comment: Debate about substance-use policy must be grounded in evidence

published on June 12, 2026 by Cheyenne Johnson, Seonaid Nolan, and Guy Felicella in Times Colonist

A commentary by the ­executive director of the B.C. Centre on Substance Use and adjunct ­professor for the school of ­nursing at UBC; a clinician scientist at the B.C. Centre on Substance Use, division head for Providence Health Care’s ­interdepartmental ­division of addiction and associate ­professor in UBC’s department of ­medicine; and a harm-reduction and recovery advocate, and peer clinical adviser at the B.C. ­Centre on Substance Use.

Re: “When it comes to addiction research, who is conducting it matters,” comment, June 4.

The commentary asks ­readers to consider an entire body of substance-use and addiction research as “compromised,” not because of flaws in the ­evidence, but simply because it was ­produced by B.C.’s largest ­centre of expertise on the topic…