On a cool Thursday afternoon in Ottawa, veteran police officer Sgt. Avery Flanagan approaches a man hunched over in a downtown parking lot. He has crushed opioids in one hand and a needle in the other. Flanagan tells the man, who appears to be […]
Category: Substance Use
How a steady place to live helped this Londoner find sobriety and meaningful work – CBC News [2024-01-16]
For a decade, Korrine MacCormick didn’t have a steady place to live. She couch surfed, spent time in jail, and bounced between homeless shelters and living on the streets of London and Stratford. She was using drugs and getting into trouble, watching some people […]
We want to keep people alive’: Outreach workers call for tools to combat toxic new street drugs – CBC News [2023-12-14]
Walking through the Glengarry non-profit housing complex in Windsor, Ont., harm reduction outreach co-ordinator Lacie Krzemien is exhausted. The recent news that Windsor’s only safe consumption site, Safepoint, will pause operations at the end of December has left her despondent. “I’m upset, because it’s […]
Naloxone: What to know about the opioid overdose-reversing drug, free across Canada – CTV News [2023-12-03]
Health Canada has called the opioid crisis one of the most serious public health threats in recent history, and an addictions specialist says everyone can play a part in helping reduce the death toll. All it takes is access to naloxone, a life-saving medication […]
Ontario inmates saw higher risk of overdose death as COVID-19 emerged: study – CTV News [2023-10-28]
Former Ontario inmates saw their risk of dying from a toxic-drug overdose jump as much as 50 per cent at the start of the pandemic compared to the years before COVID-19, says a study. The study in the medical journal PLOS One compared pandemic […]
5M Canadians experienced a mental health disorder in 2022: StatCan – CTV News [2023-09-23]
More than five million Canadians experienced some form of mental health disorder in 2022, a new Statistics Canada study has revealed. StatCan says those Canadians “met the diagnostic criteria for a mood, anxiety or substance use disorder, with the prevalence of mood and anxiety […]
Staggering mental health, addiction stats push northern First Nations to call for emergency declaration – CBC News [2023-09-13]
Chiefs of First Nations in northern Ontario are calling for a public emergency and social crisis to be declared, emphasizing the disproportionate mental health and addictions issues facing their communities compared to the rest of the province. The Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority’s […]
An overdose prevention site for inmates is coming to this Ontario prison – CBC News [2023-09-12]
Work is underway to set up a site where inmates can use drugs under medical supervision at a prison in Kingston, Ont. The overdose prevention service (OPS) at the Collins Bay Institution will be the third of its kind in Canada and the first […]
How Prescription Heroin Is Saving Lives – The Tyee [2023-09-12]
Crosstown Clinic patient Michel has used opiates for 30 years. His addiction to heroin, he says, drove him to use “alternative methods to get money, like criminal activity.” Six years ago, exhausted by the lifestyle he was leading, Michel joined Crosstown as a patient […]
Naloxone kits should be available in nasal spray, injectable version across Canada: panel – Global News [2023-09-08]
People administering an overdose-reversing medication should have a choice of both versions of take-home naloxone kits across Canada — a nasal spray and an injectable that goes into a muscle — says a panel of experts that includes people who use drugs. The new […]
‘Almost died a few times’: Northern Ontario city of Sudbury grapples with opioids – Global News [2023-08-25]
Crystal Plume sits in the shade of a tree near a busy intersection in downtown Sudbury and carefully injects fentanyl into a vein on the back of her hand before licking the speck of blood left behind. The 36-year-old who regularly panhandles in the […]
Virtual addictions program in Thamesville shuts down due to funding issues – CBC News [2023-08-20]
A Thamesville, Ont., organization says it’s being forced to shut down its virtual recovery program because its been unable to secure sustainable funding. Westover Treatment Centre, running in Chatham-Kent since 1986, stopped the program this month, and has had to lay off highly-skilled addictions […]
Ontario First Nation chief calls for more support amid opioid emergency – CTV News [2023-08-04]
One First Nation community in Ontario has officially declared a state of emergency due to an opioid crisis. “In the last five years we’ve had over 45 deaths, drug-related to the opioid crisis,” Chief Veronica Smith, of the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation in […]
What a Winnipeg drug treatment court means for the fight against drugs – Global News [2023-08-03]
For nearly two decades, a drug treatment court in Winnipeg has offered a way out of the cycle of drug abuse. Now. in a bid to support the court and its programs, the province and Justice Canada have signed a joint-five-year funding agreement. This […]
Build and fund a drug rehab centre in London, mayor tells premier – CBC News [2023-07-25]
London should be the first city in Ontario to get any newly-built publicly-funded addiction rehab facilities, Mayor Josh Morgan says. “Treatment is health care, and so it’s not something the city can do. This is a fully provincial responsibility and only the province can […]
Kids who go hungry more likely to access care for mental health, substance use: Ontario study – CBC News [2023-07-24]
Toronto resident Rhonda Miller knows how difficult it can be to afford the basic necessities. The 52-year-old lives in an apartment with her daughter and two granddaughters, who are nine and six. Rising rent and food prices mean Miller has to sometimes choose between […]
Real estate developers say homelessness, drugs hinder downtown London’s full-scale revival – CBC News [2023-07-17]
Real estate developers say homelessness, drugs and the prevalence of people suffering from severe mental illness is holding back the full-scale revival of downtown London by making it a hard sell for prospective office tenants as the core looks to turn the corner after […]
Thousands of Canadian drug users dying as government red tape limits help, advocates say – CBC News [2023-07-13]
The historic core of Cobourg, Ont., brims with small-town charm. There are stately buildings, quaint shops and old-fashioned iron lampposts decorated with hanging flower baskets. The local business authority even coined a hashtag, “#8BlocksofAwesome.” But on Friday nights, just steps off the postcard main […]
London’s opioid users say street drugs are getting stronger, cheaper and deadlier – CBC News [2023-06-16]
People who use fentanyl on the streets of London say the deadly opioid is becoming ever cheaper and more powerful, delivering higher highs, while simultaneously raising the risk of overdose death. Without widespread testing, there’s no way of knowing, but the city’s drug problem […]
Winnipeg man says he wanted federal prison sentence because of better addiction supports – CBC News [2023-06-15]
A Winnipeg man living with a cocaine addiction who has previously spent time in a provincial jail is back behind bars, this time in a federal penitentiary — and that’s what he wanted. Jason Walmsley, 34, told CBC in an interview inside the federal […]
Abstinence not required: How a Baltimore drug treatment program prioritizes saving lives – CTV News [2023-06-11]
Anthony Kelly trudged through southwest Baltimore, each laboured footstep a reminder of the roofing accident that left him with chronic pain and a raging opioid addiction several years after he returned home from serving in the Marines. Doctors used metal plates to reconstruct his […]
Prescribed alcohol program in Halifax to add social activities after finding surprising side effect – CBC News [2023-05-09]
An evaluation of a Halifax program that prescribes alcohol to people who have struggled with homelessness and alcohol dependency is showing positive results — but it’s had a surprising side effect. Participants were bored. “They didn’t need to spend so much time during the […]
Northern Ontario’s 5 largest cities continue to have highest opioid death rates in province – CBC News [2023-05-10]
Dallas Kosy says he isn’t surprised to hear that northern Ontario continues to have the highest rate of opioid overdose deaths in the province. Last week, the Office of the Chief Coroner released preliminary figures showing five cities in the region —Thunder Bay, Sault […]
