In March 2025, an article was published with open access in JAMA – looking at BC as a case study to examine safer opioid supply and decriminalization policies.
Its summarized findings say “Using the synthetic difference-in-differences method, this cohort study found that the safer opioid policy was associated with a statistically significant increase in opioid overdose hospitalizations but no change in overdose deaths; the addition of drug possession decriminalization was associated with a further increase in overdose hospitalizations.”
Doctors for Safer Drug Policy posted a response to this paper on their Instagram account (March 31, 2025 post) to critique its statements and support community education. We’ve shared that post below.
Here is what Dr. Kelsey Roden had to say about it:
Another problematic framing in this research that Kelsey and I discussed was the use of other provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia) as “control provinces” for comparison.
Taking a quick look at the Drug Analysis Service and Cannabis Laboratories on the Government of Canada website, it becomes obvious that provinces have different substance profiles and therefore don’t work well as ‘controls’ for one another.
Across BC – and the country – there is amazing harm reduction work being done. And importantly, there are voices out there seeing the good, like this free access one from Victoria BC by Kolla et al. (2024): “If it wasn’t for them, I don’t think I would be here”: experiences of the first year of a safer supply program during the dual public health emergencies of COVID-19 and the drug toxicity crisis. This article was published in the Harm Reduction Journal in 2024.
Questions? Contact Emily Taylor-Lariviere, Engagement and Capacity Building Specialist: [email protected]
See Emily’s interview with Dr. Kelsey Roden in Talking with Doctors for Safer Drug Policy.