Harm reduction & Safe supply

Harm reduction services like needle exchanges and supervised consumption sites have been a topic of heated debate on P.E.I. CBC's Tony Davis talks to advocates and public health officials about what harm reduction is, and how those services are intended to work.

The FSIN says First Nations people are disproportionately affected by this issue and calls the new policy unacceptable and needing to change. It told the minister in charge, “You are responsible for listening to and respecting First Nations' voices and working with us to find culturally appropriate and effective solutions."

The SUD treatment industry is beginning to move away from an abstinence-only approach to care and towards harm-reduction and medication-assisted treatment approaches. Research demonstrates that abstinence-based substance use disorder (SUD) treatment is deadlier than no treatment at all.

David Eby is wrong. He has sold out in order to win an election and this is going to cost peoples lives.

The analysis found the cohort who were prescribed pharmaceutical-grade opioids had a 61 per cent lower risk of death from any cause the following week, and was 55 per cent less likely to die of an overdose the following week.

It also showed the protective effect increased with the number of days opioid medications were accessed. People who received four or more days of prescription opioids were 91 per cent less likely to die from any cause, and 89 per cent less likely to die from overdose in the following week.

Dr. George Carson, a Regina-based physician with a focus on public health, says there's decades of evidence showing that providing sterile equipment and discouraging drug injection saves lives and prevents the spread of HIV and hepatitis C.

The province's move is "entirely ideological" and "just plainly wrong," he said in a Tuesday interview.

"Our country has historically responded to drug use with punishment, imprisonment, fines, court orders and criminal records," Lapointe said. "This response has resulted in lost jobs, lost families, lost dignity and lost hope. It has required huge investments in the criminal justice system, police, courts, probation officers and prisons."

As it stands, prescribed safer supply is only accessed by about 5,000 people in B.C. each month. There continues to be “no indication” that prescribed safer supply is contributed to unregulated drug deaths.