The latest news articles featuring BC Centre on Substance Use.
Stopping the Spread: Managing Substance Use Disorders Amid SARS-CoV-2
April 24, 2020 | BC Medical Journal
Those of us in the health care profession are collectively following the news on the latest SARS-CoV-2 updates, bracing for the potential wave of infections that may fill our hospitals and clinics. We’ve seen personally or heard anecdotally the terrifying impact this virus has on people. For many ...
BC Moved to Enable an Opioid ‘Safe Supply’ on the Streets. How’s that Going?
April 16, 2020 | The Tyee
Withdrawal symptoms wait for no one, not even in the middle of a pandemic, said Guy Felicella, recalling the 30 years he spent addicted to drugs. Felicella, who used heroin while living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, intimately knows the daily struggle to avoid withdrawal. “You will have to g...
Coronavirus prompts Canada to roll out safe drugs for street users
April 16, 2020 | Reuters
VANCOUVER (Reuters) – Canada’s Pacific province of British Columbia was already battling an opioid epidemic when the new coronavirus hit, compounding the threat to drug users, many of whom are homeless and particularly vulnerable during the pandemic. In March, the Canadian government urged provi...
When crises collide: COVID-19 and overdose in the Downtown Eastside
April 14, 2020 | UBC Faculty of Arts
Last month, the B.C. government declared COVID-19 a public health emergency. But in the Downtown Eastside, the novel coronavirus has amplified an existing public health emergency: the overdose crisis, which has claimed more than 4,700 lives in B.C. in the last four years. Front-line workers and comm...
People who need addiction services feel ‘abandoned’ during pandemic
April 09, 2020 | CBC News - BC
British Columbia’s former provincial health officer says he has “grave concerns” about reduced services for people struggling with drug addiction, while the manager of a supervised consumption site in Toronto says people are feeling abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Perry Kendall dec...
