Job Title: Communications Director, Canadian Drug Policy Coalition Reporting To: Executive Director  Application Deadline: May 5, 2024, 11:59PM Pacific   Desired Start Date: Late June, 2024  Location: This position is open to applications from across Canada, and CDPC staff work largely remotely. CDPC offices are located on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) territory at Simon Fraser University’s Harbour Centre campus in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. This position requires that the successful candidate be loca ..read more

Police communications about drug seizures vary widely in their accuracy. These statements rarely share specific evidence or data sources and sometimes contain errors or overstatements, as in the recent case in Belleville, Ontario and emerging information on Prince George. Police announcing large seizures of prescribed alternatives to the unregulated drug supply as Prince George RCMP did this month may drive fear and influence policy, even if based primarily on assumption. Without forensic testing, police may base their conclusions on visual assessments of shape, size, colour and packaging. Man ..read more

Ontario, Canada | March 5, 2024 — Fifty-one community groups from across Ontario are calling on the provincial government to immediately fund and support supervised consumption services amidst the worsening toxic drug crisis. In an open letter released this morning, the coalition called for eight urgent actions, including direct emergency funding, with a deadline of March 29. Citing recent and imminent closures of sites in Windsor, Sudbury, and Timmins, the group demanded swift intervention to prevent further deaths.  In Ontario, seven to 10 people are killed every day by t ..read more

March 4 2024  The Honourable Sylvia Jones  Ministry of Health  sylvia.jones@ontario.ca | sylvia.jones@pc.ola.org  777 Bay Street, 5th Floor  Toronto, ON M7A 2J3  The Honourable Michael Tibollo  Ministry of Health  michael.tibollo@ontario.ca | michael.tibollo@pc.ola.org  7 Queen’s Park Crescent  Toronto, ON M7A 1Y7  Dear Minister Jones and Associate Minister Tibollo,    RE: Supervised Consumption Services site closures due to lack of funding from Ministry of Health  We write to you with grave concern regarding the Ontario gov ..read more

February 08, 2024: Belleville, Ontario is back in the news with another spike in overdoses. In November 2023, Belleville experienced a similar spike. At that time, Belleville police stated the spike was likely due to “opioids laced with GHB”. We were skeptical of this claim, but needed to wait for any lab-based analysis of the drugs involved. The results came back in January and we developed the following statement.  View this document on Scribd Download The post Examining the Facts: Belleville, Ontario police claim, and media reporting of, “opioids contaminated with GHB ..read more

A misinformation campaign around public use legislation distracts from real solutions  January 31, 2024 | One year ago today, British Columbia decriminalized personal possession of small amounts of some drugs in limited locations in a three-year pilot project. Since then, an organized political campaign has spent time and money to cloud public perception and discredit evidence-based efforts. Let’s cut through the rhetoric and talk about what is and isn’t working with decriminalization, and what a better way forward ..read more

People who use drugs will suffer the consequences of backward-thinking and restrictive policies  January 26, 2024 | Two leading national human rights organizations have addressed the Saskatchewan provincial government to express profound concern over changes that restrict access to vital harm reduction supplies and safety information. The HIV Legal Network and the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition sent the letter yesterday, urging the government to reverse the changes and ground policy in evidence, human rights and best practice.  On January 18, Saskatchewan’s provin ..read more

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: BC Supreme Court rules in favour of Harm Reduction Nurses Association, pauses coming into force of BC’s public drug consumption law  xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, sḵwx̱wú7mesh & səlilwətaɬ lands | Vancouver, BC | December 29, 2023  Today, the BC Supreme Court granted a temporary injunction to the Harm Reduction Nurses Association (HRNA), suspending the coming into force of BC’s Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act until March 31, 2024. The court granted the injunction on the grounds that in severely restricting public drug consumption, the Ac ..read more

Michael Nurse is a harm reduction practitioner, activist, and advocate. He resides in the city of Toronto where he has worked for the past 20 years delivering harm reduction-based street outreach from a lived experience perspective. Michael Nurse: Andre, I want to thank you for being here. For agreeing to share your perspective on some of the findings from the Imagine Safe Supply research. Could you talk briefly about your background, like your pursuits, your work, and how you came to be experienced and interested in the concept of safe supply? Andre Hermanstyne: I am a former substance user ..read more

Michael Nurse is a harm reduction practitioner, activist, and advocate. He resides in the city of Toronto where he has worked for the past 20 years delivering harm reduction-based street outreach from a lived experience perspective. Frank Crichlow is the Board President of the Canadian Association of People Who Use Drugs and President of the Toronto Drug Users Union. He works at the South Riverdale Community Health Centre in Toronto as a Community Health Worker and is a community advocate with multiple organizations for people who are unhoused and who use drugs within African, Caribbean, Black ..read more