The latest news articles featuring BC Centre on Substance Use.
Opioid overdoses among homeless people rose dramatically: Ontario study
October 17, 2023 | Winnipeg Free Press
Opioid overdoses are killing a growing proportion of people experiencing homelessness in Ontario, a new study suggested Tuesday. Researchers from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences found about one in six people who died from opioid overdoses in 2021 were homeless, compared to one in 14 p...
Up in smoke: 5 years after legalization, cannabis use higher while companies burn out
October 17, 2023 | CTV News
Five years after legalization, the number of Canadians using recreational cannabis keeps getting higher while the sector shows signs of burning out. According to new research from Statistics Canada, one in five Canadians reported using cannabis in 2020 — a six per cent increase from before legali...
The roots of the North American opioid crisis, and 3 key strategies for stopping it
October 16, 2023 | The Conversation
The Netflix series Painkiller recently depicted how the over-prescribing of the medicine OxyContin wreaked havoc on American society. Today the grim reality is that opioid-related deaths in North America reached a record level in 2022, with more than 109,000 fatalities in the United States. The s...
New guideline urges doctors to regularly screen for alcohol use disorder
October 16, 2023 | Toronto Star
New guidance to help family doctors detect and manage high-risk drinking addresses a crucial gap in knowledge among both patients and doctors, say its authors, who warn that a common practice to prescribe antidepressants can actually induce cravings for alcohol. The advice is comprised of 15 recomme...
Changing ‘Welfare Wednesday’ Could Save Lives. Why Haven’t We Done It?
October 16, 2023 | The Tyee
It’s a fact that’s shown up in toxic drug death data for decades: deaths spike in the days following “Welfare Wednesday.” That’s the day in the middle of the month when people living in poverty get their cheque for an entire month’s worth of income assistance from the provincial governme...
