Substance Use News: December 2024

Substance Use News provides a monthly collection of news and resources on the social, medical and political responses to the toxic drug supply crisis and harm reduction. To get the latest toxic drug safety alerts, visit Info for People Who Use Substances page from Toward the Heart. Subscribe to our newsletter for information weekly- scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up. You can also visit our Substance Use and Harm Reduction page for more resources. 

In the News

What I Tell My Kids About My History of Drug Use

The most chaotic period of my life was partly captured on film, for a documentary about heroin addiction. This once felt like a unique burden, but is becoming more and more common for people without adequate housing and mental health care. In the 26 years since I stopped using drugs, I’ve frequently been asked the question: What will you tell your kids? (December 18, 2024)

 

I live with 20 other men in a small shared space. This is what treatment is like

I currently live with 20 other men. At 52, I never imagined having to explain a roommate, let alone 24 of them. This is my fifth alcohol addiction treatment centre in 20 years. These liminal, lucid places of recovery reset my psyche and sobriety — but damn, if I have to do this again. Despite good stretches of sobriety and big wins in love, family and jobs, relapse is part of my story. (December 15, 2024)

 

Hamilton jail nurse tells inquest some inmates released without health-care, opioid treatment plans

Nurse Zoila Guipit testified December 9, 2024 at the inquest into the drug-related deaths of six inmates between 2017 and 2021. She was the last witness called at the weeks-long hearing for the men, who died either in the provincially run jail or in hospital. The registered nurse said she wishes she could reassure her patients they’ll undoubtedly be connected to community resources — such as for opioid use disorder treatments — when they’re let out, but that doesn’t always happen. (December 10, 2024)

 

Psilocybin Helped Doctors and Nurses Who Worked Through the Pandemic

Many doctors and nurses suffered severe mental health impacts after working through the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic, including depression, “burnout” and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Newly published trial results indicate that psilocybin was able to help a small group of them to recover. Researchers ran a double-blind, randomized trial in Washington State from February-December 2022. Their study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on December 5. (December 10, 2024)

 

Ontario’s Unconscionable Supervised Consumption Sites Shutdown

On December 2, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Canada, passed a law that will shut down 10 supervised drug consumption sites (SCS). It’s an assault on harm reduction in the province that will cost untold lives. December 3, the day after Bill 223 passed, saw the publication of a damning report from Ontario’s auditor general, Shelley Spence: Implementation and Oversight of Ontario’s Opioid Strategy. The government’s SCS decision, made while the annual report was in development, was taken “without proper planning, impact analysis or public consultations,” it stated. (December 9, 2024)

 

Consultation with substance users lays out solutions to Canada’s drug crisis

Seven calls for action are laid out in a new report by the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, which over three years held 13 public consultations. It calls for federal decriminalization, expanded access to overdose prevention sites and several other measures designed to mitigate and eventually end the toxic drug crisis. The coalition said nearly 800 people were included in the meetings. (December 6, 2024)

 

Advocacy, Education, and Research

Door-to-door overdose harm reduction: an Illinois case study

Beginning operations in 2022, five pilot sites in four Illinois counties took part in a harm reduction service delivery system that offered care in a private setting (home) or in a setting not specifically focused on serving PWUD (businesses, libraries, faith-based organizations, etc.) to reach PWUD and their friends, family and neighbors living in areas disproportionately affected by opioid overdose death. The intervention theory is based on acknowledgement that harm reduction services that require PWUD to visit a mobile unit, van or community organization, may not reach those in need or their friends, neighbors, and family for a variety of reasons including stigma associated with drug use, lack of awareness about these services, or where to locate them.

 

Challenges for the implementation of injectable opioid agonist treatment: a scoping review

Injectable opioid agonist treatment (iOAT) is a valuable, patient-centred, evidence based intervention. However, limited information exists on contextual factors that may support or hinder iOAT implementation and sustainability. This study aims to examine existing research on iOAT using diacetylmorphine and hydromorphone, focusing on identifying the key barriers and facilitators to its successful implementation.

 

 


Visit the BC Centre for Disease Control’s Unregulated Drug Poisoning Emergency Dashboard for provincial data from different sources.

Visit the BC Centre on Substance Use for information on evidence-based approaches to substance use care and harm reduction.

Visit the National Safer Supply Community of Practice (NSS-CoP), whose goal is to scale up safer supply programs across Canada.

Visit the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research site for research on aclohol and substance use.

Questions? Feedback? Get in touch. Janet Madsen, Capacity Building  and Digital Communications Coordinator, [email protected]

 

Image: purplejavatroll, Flickr (Creative Commons).