A Toronto hospital network's supportive housing development for homeless patients has saved so much healthcare time and money that it's being doubled.
Dr. Andrew Boozary’s team at Toronto’s University Health Network announced a new 54-bed building.
Read on:
"Harm reduction and treatment should not be seen as conflicting 'one-or-the other' approaches, but as essential components of holistic care for people who use drugs" - Policy Options
Every day, 17 Canadadians are poisoned by opioids, yet harm reduction services are being shut
Governments talk about treatment beds and involuntary care to "absolve themselves of any meaningful action" against the housing and affordability crises - Canadian Drug Policy Coalition.
More treatment is not a substitute for poverty reduction & affordable housing, they write
"Ensuring that all people who inject drugs have access to sterile equipment for every injection is a proven, life-saving harm reduction strategy, yet it remains critically underimplemented globally" - medical journal The Lancet.
Read it: tinyurl.com/2hhbc285
“Did you do anything to refresh your memory in order to testify meaningfully today?” asked the judge.
At a hearing re DULF's constitutional challenge, a senior Health Canada official struggled to reconcile government claims with past statements on safe supply, reports @godfrey.bsky.social:
Last week, I showed how the Alberta government conceals up to 89% of ambulance dispatches to overdoses / drug poisonings in public reporting.
Now Mike Parker, president of the Alberta union that includes paramedics, reacts to the data.
He's not pleased.
READ: drugdatadecoded.ca/how-do-you-r...
Today on APTN National News: Advocates from across the country are calling for more support to help the unhoused during extreme cold conditions.
As some UK politicians seek to end the drug war, it's easy to forget how heroin prescribing existed there for much of the 20th century.
It "just works," says Dr. John Marks—who was "vilified" as political pressure shut down his successful clinics in 1995.
@sarahlsinclair.bsky.social reports:
Today.
We're hiring nurses to work in the community we serve.
Wanted: LPNs to perform the full scope of nursing functions in a primary care setting in the Downtown Eastside.
You will get to use your clinical skills and longitudinal relationship-building abilities
Apply: www.phs.ca/careers/lpn-vancouver
Grieving mom Tanya McMahon - everyone deserves dignity, respect and love, no matter the battles they face.
“Behind those eyes, there is a person there who’s suffering and is trying to cope,” she said.
Read more:
It's a myth that supervised consumption sites attract crime. They are frontline medical units that improve neighbourhood public health.
Researchers at McGill University researchers crunched the crime data around Toronto site that were closed supposedly for neighbourhood safety: tinyurl.com/2uf4zumj
"Spending doesn’t match the scope of the crisis, and long-term social planning is nonexistent" - Jody Paterson, examining the failed social policy behind the homelessness crisis.
Meet some of the people abandoned to street life on Victoria's Pandora Avenue: tinyurl.com/bdea9s2y
Compassion should be the standard.
“I’ve had friends lose their feet, lose their legs,” she said. “This is not something I wish on anybody.”
https://loom.ly/u1JlKBE
Happening next week: Join us for the first free Foundational Fridays session of 2026! Details & registration below ⬇️
#HarmReduction #HarmReductionSavesLives #HarmReductionIsHealthCare #SupportNotStigma #SyringeExchange #SSPs #PublicHealth #StopHIVTogether #HepC #HepCULater #Hepatitis #EndOverdose
“These peer reporters bring a distinctive perspective to the table: by living and working in the DTES, and actively producing a monthly magazine at Megaphone, they are both reporters and the reported on.“
@megaphonemagazine.com
Soccer sessions for people experiencing homelessness, poverty and social isolation show that we're all neighbours.
“It’s about creating community and connection for people who often feel isolated," said Canadian Street Soccer Assoc.'s Brandon Green, who runs Victoria sessions.
tinyurl.com/ymdph8da
“Drug users are being scapegoated for all the failures of our broken system. We’re low hanging fruit" - letter from five members of DULF’s compassion club.
"It’s easy, you can always blame the drug user. Vilify, criminalize, stigmatize."
"People in the media often portray the Downtown Eastside as a broken place that needs help from people outside to 'fix' it" - Megaphone Magazine.
"But framing the area as 'the problem' ignores the fact that these are issues that affect many of us in one way or another."
It is the source of so many of our evils: the astonishing concentration of wealth in the hands of a very few, and the immense political power that gives them. We cannot solve our problems until we tackle it.
This week's column.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
This is like an exponential curve inflection point. Houselessness has already doubled in Toronto in the last three years. Where will this put thousands more people on the edge?
Ref: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
When someone is taken into custody life is put on pause. Housing,income,health,care,relationships are disrupted with little planning for release. Every sentence ends, reintegration is treated as an afterthought not something that starts on day one.
markcherrington.substack.com/p/why-people...
I used to assume that when people who use drugs went online, it was mostly about dysfunction. I was wrong. There is rawness,support, safety, connection. I wrote this piece to challenge our assumptions and share how AI helped push our understanding further. #academicsky #drugsky
tinyurl.com/4r7em5wx
Kai’s foster parents believe attacks he’s faced by non-Indigenous peers aren’t merely the result of bullying.
His experiences also reflect a history of colonial systems failing to uphold the safety and rights of Indigenous Youth.
@amyromer.bsky.social reports. An @indiginews.bsky.social reprint.
Six years ago, "rule of law" was the refrain used to justify and encourage police action against anyone blocking access to the Coastal GasLink pipeline route on Wet'suwet'en territory.
But when courts side with First Nations, politicians are more equivocal. @thetyee.ca thetyee.ca/Analysis/202...
You don't often get chances to hear an insider account of how authorities react to emergencies - so check out Lisa Lapointe's online discussion of the toxic drug crisis.
She's “forever altered” by the emergency.
It's at 11 am on Wednesday, Jan. 14. Info: tinyurl.com/bdf89sdy
