August 2023 News & Notes
Here's what's going on at CAI
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We're Hiring!
 CAI is seeking to hire a Project Manager for the Overdose Prevention and Education Network (OPEN). This role will be responsible for the coordination and management of the OPEN program. OPEN is a $3M provincial grant program that supports community-led responses to the unregulated toxic drug crisis, through direct grants and training, capacity-building, and knowledge exchange activities. The role requires working effectively with diverse stakeholders, including people with lived/living experience of substance use and their families, community-based organizations, and provincial government bodies.
This position is part-time at 30 hours a week for a 12-month contract, with the opportunity for extension.
Click here to learn more about the position and to apply.
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Gathering Hope - Positive Impacts in Community Overdose Response 2023
Hosted through partnership between Community Action Initiative and the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC), Local Leadership United (LLU) is working to build on local capacity, relationships, networks, and a commitment to change with respect to community overdose response. Since April 2022, LLU has hosted 24 in-person dialogues across all five regional health authorities in BC. LLU has engaged over 50 local governments in conversations about the unregulated drug poisoning crisis, harm reduction and community health.
Through June 22nd and 23rd, CAI brought together Local Leadership United members to a provincial convening called Gathering Hope: Positive Impacts in Community Overdose Response.
Gathering Hope: Positive Impacts in Community Overdose Response sought to collect stories of communities creating positive impact amidst an incredibly challenging reality. With 29 local governments represented, there were just over 80 LLU members from across BC present. We are pleased to share a blog post about the event!
Visit our blog to learn more about the Gathering Hope and to view the Graphic Recording in full size.
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International Overdose Awareness Day 2023
 Unregulated drug toxicity is now the leading cause of death in British Columbia for people aged 10 to 59, accounting for more deaths than homicides, suicides, accidents and natural disease combined. More than 1,000 lives have been lost to the toxic unregulated drugs in first five months of 2023 in BC. The lives of at least 12,300 British Columbians have been lost in the seven years since the public health emergency was first declared in April 2016.
This year, we mark International Overdose Awareness Day with a continued sense of grief, urgency, and hope that stigma and failed drug policy will become a thing of the past.
August 31st is International Overdose Awareness Day (IOAD), a global event held each year to raise awareness and end overdose, remember without stigma those we have lost, and acknowledge the grief felt by families and friends left behind. Globally, events are held to rouse action and discussion to empower communities to take action in advancing evidence-based overdose prevention and drug policy.
Throughout BC, events will be held leading up to and on International Overdose Awareness Day. Please join in activities and actions near your community.
Visit our blog to find an event near you.
We will continue to update this post as more events are added.
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Combating Misinformation and Disinformation about Drug Decriminalization in Oregon (Measure 110)
The decriminalization of small amounts of some illegal drugs for personal use among people aged 18 or older in BC has inevitably drawn comparison to other jurisdictions who have done the same. One example is Oregon, where in 2020, citizens voted for state-wide decriminalization of personal possession of small amounts of illegal drugs.
Recently, a number of major US media articles have been published that blame decriminalization for nearly every social issue causing concern in communities across Oregon. While these social issues are real – many cities and towns in North America are dealing with an increasingly toxic drug supply, as well as climate change, health care, housing, employment, and cost-of-living crises – the narrative that decriminalization is to blame is not accurate.
The Drug Policy Alliance has put together a set of fact-based resources to counter the misleading and inaccurate information being spread in these articles and beyond. To learn more:
- Oregon Decriminalized Drugs. What happened Next? (Drug Policy Alliance video)
- Dispelling Myths Around Oregon’s Move to Decriminalize Drugs (NowThis News video)
- Don’t Blame Drug Decriminalization for What the Housing Crisis Has Caused (TruthOut article)
- Research Triangle Institute’s (RTI’s) evidence-based research on Oregon's Drug Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act (RTI website)
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Community Learning Opportunities, External Grants, Jobs & Events
New resource to help people with severe alcohol addiction - BCCSU/CISUR
The BC Centre on Substance Use, in partnership with the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, have published new national guidance to help people with severe alcohol addiction.
 Alcohol use is one of the most prevalent forms of substance use and a substantial driver of morbidity, mortality, and socio-economic cost both in Canada and globally. Available treatment interventions often do not address the needs of people with severe AUD for whom reduction or discontinuation of alcohol use are unrealistic goals. There is an urgent need for harm reduction strategies for individuals who do not find existing services in the AUD care continuum feasible, effective, or appropriate.
The first-ever Canadian guidance for Managed Alcohol Programs (MAPs) has been developed to support scaling up of these evidence-based programs for treating severe alcohol use disorder (AUD). The new guidance, developed with funding from Health Canada, provides operational information with the aim to ultimately scale up the availability of these programs nationally.
Click here to access the resource.
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An Update on Xylazine in the Unregulated Drug Supply: Harms and Public Health Responses in Canada and the United States - CCEDNDU
The Canadian Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (CCENDU) has published a bulletin on xylazine in the unregulated drug supply in Canada and the United States. The purpose of this bulletin is to inform public health professionals, policy makers and people who use drugs about the presence and harms of xylazine in the unregulated drug supply.
Access the update here.
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A Gendered Analysis of Prescribed Safer Supply in BC - Co/Lab Community of Practice Webinar
 The Collaborative Community Laboratory on Substance Use and Harm Reduction (Co/Lab) has an active Community of Practice (CoP) that ensures monitoring, surveillance, and evaluation data are used to develop and support programs that benefit people who use drugs (PWUD) and alcohol. In doing so, this CoP brings together researchers and knowledge users (including people who use drugs) from across British Columbia to share knowledge and develop expertise around reducing substance-related harms.
The CoP hosts webinars that focus on specific topics related to health equity for people who use substances. These webinars are to share learnings related to healthy equity coming from the Co/Lab study as well as learnings from on the ground programs and policy developments created to improve the lives of or people who use substances in BC. Recently, the CoP had Ginger Sullivan from the Co/Lab team present on their recent gendered analysis of prescribed safer supply in BC.
Click here to watch the webinar and to learn more about the Co/Lab Community of Practice
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Imagine Safe Supply - Summary of Findings Published
 Imagine Safe Supply is a community-based research project by the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition (CDPC) that explores ideas about participation in safe supply. The people leading this research include people who use drugs and frontline workers, as well as graduate students and staff of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition at Simon Fraser University. This work was carried out with the understanding that people who use drugs are closest to the problem of the toxic drug supply, and that we can’t move forward to find solutions without their vision and leadership. CDPC interviewed 33 people who use drugs and frontline workers from across British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec about what they want and need for safe supply.
Visit the CDPC page to view the Summary of Findings for Imagine Safe Supply.
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