The latest news articles featuring BC Centre on Substance Use.
To eliminate blood-borne infections in Canada, we have to remember that prison health is public health
March 06, 2020 | Globe and Mail
In our efforts to eliminate hepatitis C (HCV), HIV and other blood-borne infections, Canada is dragging its feet on the health of a particularly important but often forgotten group: people in prison. The World Health Organization tells us that it’s possible to reduce global rates of HCV by 90 per ...
If alcohol, tobacco and cannabis are legal, this queer sex drug should be up for consideration, too
March 05, 2020 | The Star
If alcohol is legal, tobacco is legal and cannabis is too, another substance scientists say is far less harmful and far more useful should be up for consideration as well. Researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) are calling on the federal government to legalize a queer sex drug com...
BC Created a Ministry to Deal with the Overdose Crisis. Is It Working?
March 04, 2020 | The Tyee
Perry Kendall wondered if it really made sense for British Columbia to create a stand-alone ministry to deal with mental health and addictions, as it did in 2017. The idea had “a great deal of political appeal,” he noted. But it might build in a disadvantage. Why? Because “you have one ministr...
‘I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t go respond’: Vancouver tenants take lead in overdose prevention
February 28, 2020 | CBC News
Jeremy Bell goes door-knocking in a decrepit hotel on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. If a tenant answers his knock, he offers food, the anti-overdose drug naloxone, and a harm reduction kit. He strikes up conversations, encouraging tenants to take naloxone training. Those living in these impoveris...
B.C. overdose deaths declined in 2019 but health officials caution the fentanyl crisis continues
February 24, 2020 | Georgia Straight
The province’s first initial count of overdose deaths in 2019 shows a sharp decline from previous years but a number that remains miles above what was once considered “normal” for British Columbia. There were 981 illicit-drug-overdose deaths in B.C. last year, according to a B.C. Coroners Serv...
