British Columbia Centre on Substance Use

Awareness, interest and use of a hospital-based overdose prevention site in Vancouver, Canada: a cross-sectional study

An overdose prevention site (OPS) was implemented as a harm-reduction strategy to mitigate the consequences associated with the injection of substances at one Canadian hospital. This study sought to examine awareness, interest, and use of a hospital-based OPS among individuals wh...

Reconsidering the Alberta study of the closure of the Red Deer supervised consumption site

Supervised consumption sites (SCS) are interventions supported by decades of evidence and yet remain subject to considerable politicization. Recently, researchers from Alberta, Canada published a study in the journal Addiction that sought to assess the impacts of the closure of a...

Encampment sweeps and persistent homelessness among unhoused people who use drugs in Vancouver, Canada: A prospective cohort study

Background Housing is a key determinant of health. In response to increasingly visible homelessness amid a growing housing crisis, many jurisdictions in North America forcibly displace unhoused people from public spaces, routinely confiscating their personal belongings. While pri...

A review of policy actions implemented during a toxic drug public health emergency in British Columbia, Canada (2016–2024)

Background During a decade-long public health emergency, driven by a highly unpredictable unregulated drug supply, drug toxicity remains the leading cause of unnatural death in British Columbia (BC), Canada. In response, the province implemented a multi-faceted approach to preven...

Pharmacological Management of Opioid Use Disorder: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis: Prise en charge pharmacologique du trouble de l'usage des opiacés : revue systématique et méta-analyse en réseau

Objective To assess the comparative benefits and harms of opioid substitution and antagonist therapies (OSATs) for opioid use disorder (OUD) using a network meta-analysis (NMA) of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Data Sources Medline, EMBASE, PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science,...

Police drug seizures without arrest before and during a decriminalization pilot in Vancouver, Canada: a longitudinal analysis

On 31 January 2023, the province of British Columbia (BC), Canada implemented a three-year “Decriminalization Pilot” in response to a toxic drug supply public health emergency, which removed criminal sanctions for the personal possession of some drugs below a cumulative total of...

The symbolic power of decriminalization and recriminalization in shaping stigma toward people who use drugs in British Columbia

In January 2023, British Columbia (BC) implemented a three-year decriminalization pilot to reduce harms of drug criminalization and address stigma toward people who use drugs. In May 2024, the policy was amended to “recriminalize” drug possession, a reform that excluded most publ...