The latest news articles featuring BC Centre on Substance Use.
Cheap and easy: fentanyl test strips show promise as new tool in B.C.’s struggle with overdose deaths
September 21, 2016 | The Georgia Straight
While Insite is still the only bricks-and-mortar location in Vancouver where one can obtain a testing strip for fentanyl, the kits are more easily available than most people know Since mid-July, an experiment at Insite, Vancouver’s supervised-injection facility, has allowed drug users to test ...
‘A major barrier’: Make drugs that prevent fentanyl deaths free, families and experts say
September 16, 2016 | CBC
$12 a day to control cravings and $50 for overdose antidote kit too high, Richmond, B.C., mom says ennifer Molto hates the sound of a ringing phone. “Every morning, I wake up and I think, ‘Is today the day?'” The Richmond, B.C., woman lives in constant fear the next call will be to...
Opinion: Preparing nurses to better care for patients with addictions
July 29, 2016 | The Vancouver Sun
Every day in BC, there are an average of two deaths from preventable drug overdoses. Countless citizens are struggling to use less, to not use, or to hide their substance use, whether it is drugs or alcohol, from their families and employers. The prevailing belief in our society has been addiction i...
Medical marijuana: Does research back up claims of therapeutic benefits?
July 29, 2016 | The Globe and Mail
A new Globe and Mail investigation is raising alarming questions about the safety of cannabis being sold illegally in unregulated dispensaries. But for the thousands of Canadians who use regulated and tested medical cannabis, there is another urgent issue researchers are scrambling to address: Does ...
BC wants federal crackdown on fentanyl trafficking to fight crisis
July 27, 2016 | Maclean's
In the last six months, the BC coroners’ service says deaths from apparent illicit drug overdose have spiked 74 per cent from last year VANCOUVER – Overdose deaths have climbed to such an urgent level in British Columbia that the province needs help from the federal government to deal wi...