The latest news articles featuring BC Centre on Substance Use.
Drug prohibition is fuelling the overdose crisis: Regulating drugs is the way out
July 04, 2024 | The Conversation
Should heroin and cocaine be legally available to people who need and want them? If we are serious about stopping the crisis of drug overdose deaths, that is exactly the kind of profound change we need. Yes, extensive regulations would be necessary. In fact, the whole point of regulating drug produc...
Public disorder up on Metro Vancouver’s transit system as ridership grows
June 05, 2024 | Vancouver Sun
As transit ridership approached pre-pandemic levels in 2023, calls to Transit Police for drug, alcohol or mental health cases jumped, according to figures from the Metro Vancouver Transit Police. There were more than 600 such calls in 2023, or about 2.6 calls for every million trips taken on tran...
Detox beds in B.C. routinely sit empty because of staff shortages
June 03, 2024 | Globe and Mail
Dozens of detox beds in British Columbia sit empty because of a shortage of addictions physicians and nurses needed to staff them, according to internal health authority data obtained by The Globe and Mail. In the Vancouver region, this has meant that up to half of the spaces at 24- and 18-bed withd...
Liberal government’s own polling said Canadians worried about drug decriminalization
May 31, 2024 | Winnipeg Free Press
OTTAWA – Months before British Columbia sought to scale back its drug decriminalization pilot project, the federal government’s own polling suggested to officials that a majority of Canadians believed the policy would lead to an increase in overdoses. The results of the 11-page survey by the Pri...
Vancouver drug advocates barred from symposium on addictions treatment amid protest concerns
May 30, 2024 | CityNews Vancouver
A planned protest by drug user advocates forced a conference on drug policy and addictions treatment to relocate from downtown Vancouver to Richmond Thursday. The Policy Roundtable on Substance Prevention, Education and Recovery (PROSPER) Symposium was set to be held at the Sheraton Wall Centre on B...
