The latest news articles featuring BC Centre on Substance Use.
Edmonton substance users can get drugs checked at new downtown testing site
August 01, 2023 | CBC News
As overdoses in Edmonton reach record-high levels, users can visit a free drug-checking site that will analyze substances to determine what is in them and whether they’ve been cut with high-potency materials. The Spectrum drug testing program, which operates Monday and Friday afternoons at 10...
Advocates hope rookie minister acts quickly to tackle a wave of overdose deaths
July 28, 2023 | CBC News
Ya’ara Saks, Canada’s new minister of mental health and addictions, inherits a complex portfolio and an opioid crisis that has only gotten worse in almost every year since 2016. Advocates and addictions experts say they would like to see the new minister take a holistic approach to the...
‘This Is a Life or Death Facility and It Needs to Operate’
July 27, 2023 | The Tyee
On Monday Vancouver Coun. Peter Meiszner took to Twitter to announce the City of Vancouver wouldn’t be renewing the lease of the Thomus Donaghy Overdose Prevention Site. This overdose prevention site, or OPS, is located in Vancouver’s City Centre neighbourhood at Helmcken and Seymour, just one b...
Stigma, lack of awareness linked to underutilization of medications that treat alcohol use disorder: B.C. study
July 27, 2023 | CTV News Vancouver
A new study is highlighting a huge gap in the treatment of alcohol use disorder (AUD) in British Columbia, which researchers believe is largely due to a lack of awareness and stigma. Findings published Tuesday by the BC Centre on Substance Use suggest fewer than five per cent of people with the diso...
UBC prototype drug testing robot headed to Shambhala Music Festival for test run
July 22, 2023 | Castanet
UBC researchers are field testing a prototype robot that could change the future of drug testing at the Shambhala Music Festival in the Kootenays this weekend. Associate Professor Jason Hein said one year ago, his graduate student Sarah Guzman joined the lab and identified a need for quicker, more a...
