Here's a collection of our coverage of addiction-related issues, including Vancouver and B.C.'s opioid and overdose crisis, mental-health issues, various forms of addiction (including smoking, alcohol, sex, and gambling), harm reduction, treatment and therapies, and more.
For further coverage about mental-health issues, visit this webpage.
The roles peers play in overdose response are usually on the front lines of the crisis, staffing injection sites and patrolling Downtown Eastside alleys with the overdose-reversal drug naloxone.
The province’s first initial count of overdose deaths in 2019 shows a sharp decline from previous years but a number that remains miles above what was once considered “normal”.
A triumvirate of NDP power brokers—Health Minister Adrian Dix, Solicitor General Mike Farnworth, and Premier John Horgan—oppose one of the provincial health officer's key recommendations to reduce deaths from illicit drug use.
If a royal commission ever is established to investigate the causes of Canada's opioid epidemic, it would likely focus on the years that former prime minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative party held power.
Epidemiologists, health officials, and people who use drugs consider whether the opioid crisis has reached a saturation point and is beginning to burn itself out.
The former BCCLA policy director maintains that authorities can turn the tide on the fentanyl crisis by offering people addicted to street drugs a regulated alternative.
Last month, the Straight reported that deaths inside social-housing sites appear to be on the rise; now, operators point to systemic challenges inherent in finding a balance between security and privacy and government rules that contradict one another.
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