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
Supervised consumption sites provide essential community connections and services for those who use them. By closing them, governments are risking the welfare of people who use drugs.
Research has long shown that criminalising otherwise law-abiding citizens for their drug use is no deterrent. It only damages their life chances, in a discriminatory fashion.
Bathrooms are common settings for overdose but can be made safer.
(Envirotec)
More than 50 overdoses happen in bathrooms every month in British Columbia. Public bathrooms can be made safer for everyone, including people who use substances.
Current supply shortages may also be a problem for people in palliative care or receiving cancer treatment.
B.C. Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Sheila Malcolmson holds a copy of exemption documents that enable British Columbia to decriminalize possession of small amounts of ‘hard’ drugs for personal use. B.C.’s bold experiment will be closely watched as a comparator with other progressive jurisdictions.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
British Columbia’s bold experiment provides an opportunity to implement more balance in Canadian drug policy, and a more principled withdrawal from the war on drugs.
Euphoria tackles the status quo head on with an esthetic that transgresses the codes of television, while criticizing several taboos and social issues.
On the surface, sober months like Dry January and Dry February are great. But we need to broaden the discussion around how privilege and policy impact one’s relationship with alcohol and other drugs.
Our results suggest police location groups and pages on Facebook are helping drivers avoid detection for drug driving - with potentially fatal consequences.