Premier David Eby, joined by Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth, announce that the B.C. government is banning the use of hard drugs in public places, part of the province’s ongoing decriminalization pilot project, at a press conference in Victoria on Oct. 5, 2023.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito
Decriminalizing drugs is not intended as a solution to drug problems. Rather, it is a critical first step that’s necessary, but not sufficient, for replacing prohibition with a public health approach.
Negative attitudes lead to stigma, which sees people who use drugs isolated and marginalised.
Photographs of victims of overdose are displayed to mark International Overdose Awareness Day, in Vancouver, on Aug. 31, 2023.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Calls to destigmatize language around drug addiction must be combined with action to change policies that stigmatize people in early recovery.
Nitazenes, like this powder sample, are a class of synthetic opioids more potent than morphine and fentanyl.
Joe Lamberti/The Washington Post via Getty Images
LGBTQ+ people face barriers to accessing substance use services, but research shows there are ways to make them more inclusive and supportive.
People march to remember those who died during the drug poisoning crisis on International Overdose Awareness Day, in Vancouver, on Aug. 31, 2021.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
A police policy of not making arrests for simple possession is a way to essentially decriminalize personal drug use. However, confiscating drugs — even without arrests — can be harmful in many ways.
A new study found that youth were providing extreme or untruthful responses to CDC surveys on LGBQ student health.
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Potential inaccuracies in CDC high school surveys may have created an exaggerated perception that LGBQ youth engage in risky behaviors, new research shows.
Xylazine, or tranq, is increasingly being mixed with drugs like fentanyl or heroin and can be difficult to detect. Most people who use drugs are unable to tell if they have been exposed to it.
Judy Ryan’s book describes, in meticulous detail, what it took for the Victorian government to trial the state’s first safe injecting facility, through the lens of a local Richmond resident.
Meth, control and violence have shaped, but not defined, the lives of women like Misty.
Photo by Jared Ragland
Photographing the lives of women meth users in rural America.
A supervised consumption site in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, in 2021. B.C. has decriminalized simple possession of drugs, including methamphetamines and opioids.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck