The latest news articles featuring BC Centre on Substance Use.
Opinion: Drug-checking services could help prevent overdoses
August 11, 2017 | The Vancouver Sun
In recent years across B.C., a public-health tragedy has resulted in thousands of preventable deaths from street drugs containing powerful opioids such as fentanyl or its analogs. Toxicity from adulteration has occurred not just in the heroin supply, but also in stimulants, club drugs and counterfei...
Facing Up to the Fentanyl Crisis
August 11, 2017 | Research2Reality
What’s being done in Canada to deal with the dangerous drug? And do you know what to do if you suspect a fentanyl overdose? Fentanyl is a hundred times more potent than heroin, and a dose the size of a grain of sand is enough to kill you. Fentanyl’s potency makes it cheaper and easier t...
Opening a supervised injection site ‘not a simple process’; new guidelines aim to help
August 10, 2017 | CBC
With more supervised injections sites opening in B.C. and applications moving through the Health Canada approval process, the B.C. Centre for Substance Use has published a new set of guidelines for running these facilities. Associate director Dr. Thomas Kerr says the guidelines are designe...
Better medical education: One solution to the opioid crisis
August 07, 2017 | The Conversation
We are in the middle of an overdose crisis in Canada and around the world. Opioid overdose is a complex problem, but opioid addiction can be managed with effective interventions. Nonetheless, many evidence-based interventions are underused, and inadequate medical education is contributing to the pro...
The Canadian city where addicts are allowed to inject
August 07, 2017 | BBC News
As the opioid crisis spreads across North America, the Canadian city of Vancouver is pioneering a radical approach to drug treatment – let addicts use. It’s “cheque day” in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, and people are feeling good. Having just cashed their monthly soci...
