BC Health Experts Say the Province Has Solutions to the Toxic Drug Crisis. 10 Years In, Policies Still Ignore The Evidence. “We have this bizarre dichotomy where everybody agrees that this is a health issue, but the majority of the resources…goes to law enforcement.”

pressprogress.ca/bc-health-ex...

Reflecting on 10 Long Years of BC’s Toxic Drug Crisis | The Tyee I’ve spent my career working in the public health emergency. It’s time for a full embrace of evidence-based drug policies.

“We will emerge into a landscape of rational drug policy, even if it remains pretty dark until we get there.”

Victoria-based addiction medicine specialist Dr. Ryan Herriot writes. #ToxicDrugCrisis #bcpoli

This first line in this article "It was 2014 when I first heard of fentanyl entering the unregulated drug supply." feels like a stab in my heart.

It was in 2014 that I learned about the contaminated supply by losing my youngest son Danny to it.
The day that made me an accidental advocate.

Ten Years In: A Crisis Being Normalized | HRNA/AIIRM For Immediate Release April 14, 2026 Ten Years In: A Crisis Being Normalized Today marks ten years since British Columbia declared a public health emergency in response to the toxic drug poisoning ...

Ten years into a declared emergency.

More than 18,000 deaths.
Preventable. Still preventable.

“What has become most alarming is not only the scale of loss, but how normalized this crisis has become”

Read HRNA’s statement here.

#bcpoli

www.hrna-aiirm.ca/2026/04/14/t...

🚨#FridayFacts: Evidence shows supervised consumption sites prevent deaths, reduce ER visits, and connect people with care.

Closing them is dangerous.

Tell Premier Ford to reverse this decision: RNAO.ca/policy/actio...

#HarmReduction

Fatally flawed policies based on a flawed study as outlined here

“…poor accounting for confounding service changes, potential model misspecifications, and undisclosed conflicts of interest.”

odprn.ca/research/pub...

Thank you for speaking out for life and for the evidence in support of consumption sites.

Dr. Kelsey Roden, being a badass.

We are creating space in the Naming a Crisis exhibit for healthcare workers to participate by sharing messages about their experiences in the crisis.

Manitoba’s Bill 48 empowers police to target individuals of perceived drug intoxication and detain them for 3 days in solitary confinement. How does the expansion of involuntary detention and forced detox, made possible through Bill 48, deepen colonial harm?
yellowheadinstitute.org/2026/care-no...

Ontario is facing a #ToxicDrugCrisis — and losing supervised consumption services will only make it worse.

Your voice matters more than ever.

Urge Premier @fordnation to reverse this decision: RNAO.ca/policy/actio...

How Ontario's three private drug consumption sites are surviving As funding cuts loom, Ontario's public drug consumption sites may shut down, leaving a donor-funded system to fill the gap

An important read!

“Johnson says their donor-driven model provides stability, enabling the site to focus on “doing what we know is right and needed,” rather than chasing shifting government priorities.”

#onpoli #cdnpoli #harmreduction

www.canadianaffairs.news/2026/03/31/h...

OPEN LETTER RE: DEFUNDING OF ALL SUPERVISED CONSUMPTION SITES IN ONTARIO - Canadian Drug Policy Coalition March 31st 2026 The Honourable Doug Ford, MPPPremier, Minister of Intergovernmental AffairsVia email: premier@ontario.ca | doug.fordco@pc.ola.org The Honourable Sylvia Jones, MPPDeputy Premier, Minist...

Open Letter: Defunding of all Supervised Consumption Sites in Ontario

“Effective law and policy must be grounded in evidence, and shifting funding from SCS elsewhere is not supported by evidence or the public at large.”

#onpoli #cdnpoli

drugpolicy.ca/open-letter-...

Attention AB nurses. Please sign the petition and send a letter to the Premier & Minister of Mental Health & Addiction (MLA Rick Wilson). Thank you to @hrna.bsky.social
for the letter template & links for sending.
Harm Reduction Saves Lives

Harm Reduction Nurses Association Condemns Decision to Close Supervised Consumption Services in Alberta | HRNA/AIIRM The government has framed these closures as a shift toward treatment and recovery. This is a false choice. Harm reduction and treatment are not competing approaches—they are interdependent. People can...

“Harm reduction and treatment are not competing approaches—they are interdependent. People cannot access recovery if they are no longer alive.”
Thank you @hrna.bsky.social 💜

www.hrna-aiirm.ca/2026/03/27/h...

"Closing supervised consumption services will not resolve homelessness, poverty, or unmet mental health needs. It will intensify them. It will shift harm into public spaces, increase pressure on emergency services, and deepen inequities across communities."
#yeg #yegcc #ableg

A photo from Catie’s anti stigma toolkit show a supervised consumption service and a vital signs monitor. There is text overlay saying Harm Reduction Nurses Association Condemns Decision to Close Supervised Consumption Services in Alberta and “Harm reduction and treatment are not competing approaches-they are interdependent. People cannot access recovery if they are no longer alive."

The Harm Reduction Nurses Association Condemns Decision to Close Supervised Consumption Services in Alberta

Read our statement here 👇👇👇

#abpoli #onpoli

www.hrna-aiirm.ca/2026/03/27/h...

“The decisions made by the governments of Alberta and Ontario will put tens of thousands of lives at risk for fatal overdose, increasing health system expenditures and wait-time pressures for an already strained system.”

@canadanurses.bsky.social 👏👏

#abpoli #onpoli

www.cna-aiic.ca/en/blogs/cn-...

Supervised consumption services are evidence based, compassionate, and essential. Removing them will cost lives — but together we can push for change.

Join us in urging Premier Ford to reverse the decision to close supervised consumption services: RNAO.ca/policy/actio...

#HarmReduction

🚨URGENT: Evidence shows supervised consumption sites prevent deaths, reduce ER visits, and connect people with care.

Closing them is dangerous.

Tell Premier Ford to reverse this decision: RNAO.ca/policy/actio...

#HarmReduction

Harm Reduction Nurses Denounce Ontario Decision to End Supervised Consumption Sites | HRNA/AIIRM For Immediate Release March 17, 2026 Harm Reduction Nurses Denounce Ontario Decision to End Supervised Consumption Sites The decision announced on Friday, March 13th by the Government of Ontario to en...

“The Harm Reduction Nurses Association stands in firm opposition to this decision. We stand in solidarity with people who use drugs, harm reduction workers, peers, nurses, and communities who refuse to accept policies that abandon people to preventable death.”

www.hrna-aiirm.ca/2026/03/17/h...

Closing supervised consumption services sites will cost lives, Premier! RNAO is urging Premier Ford to reverse the decision to close supervised consumption site. This will cost lives.

Closing Supervised Consumption Services Will Cost Lives, Premier!

The @rnao.ca “is urging Premier Ford to reverse this decision. For the sake of those at risk, nothing else will suffice.”

Please sign this Action Alert urgently!

#onpoli #cdnpoli

rnao.ca/policy/actio...

For Immediate Release March 16, 2026 Harm Reduction Nurses Denounce Ontario Decision to End Supervised en réduction des méfaits Consumption Sites The decision announced on Friday, March 13* by the Government of Ontario to end provincial funding for Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS), also known as Supervised Consumption Sites, is devastating and unconscionable. This is not a new direction, but the latest escalation in the Ford Government's sustained attacks on harm reduction since 2018. This decision is not grounded in evidence. It offers no real solutions. Instead, it fuels moral panic and spreads dangerous disinformation about addiction and people who use drugs (PWUD). The Harm Reduction Nurses Association stands in firm opposition to this decision. We stand in solidarity with people who use drugs, harm reduction workers, peers, nurses, and communities who refuse to accept policies that abandon people to preventable death. Every single day in 2025, five Ontarians died from opioid toxicity. Every day, families are shattered. Every day, communities are forced to grieve the losses that should never happen. These deaths are not inevitable. They are the result of a poisoned drug supply and policy choices that ignore reality. Nurses witness this crisis firsthand. We work alongside people every day to prevent and treat infections, reverse overdoses, and build relationships rooted in dignity and trust. Supervised Consumption Sites are not optional. They are life-saving spaces of care, connection, and resistance. Their removal in June 2026 will cost lives. As nurses, we refuse to be silent. We demand that the Ontario Government take responsibility for the lives of all Ontarians and immediately reverse this decision. The government claims to be "focused on treatment, recovery, and safer communities." This decision proves the opposite. It further excludes people who use drugs from the very services and communities they have a right to access. It priorities punis…

You can also check out our full statement here 👇👇👇

An image of a nasal naloxone dose in its packaging, sitting in a wire shelf next to some other medical supplies. The text overlay in the top left says “this decision will cost lives” and on the bottom it says "These are necropolitical decisions that determine who is allowed to live and who is left to die."

Every single day in 2025, five Ontarians were killed by the toxic unregulated drug supply.

Nurses know this decision will cost lives.

This decision is not rooted in evidence.

These are necropolitical decisions that determine who is allowed to live and who is left to die.

The photo shows the inside of a supervised consumption service, featuring injection booths and a vital signs monitor. There is text overlay reading “Harm Reduction Nurses Denounce Ontario Decision to End Supervised Consumption Services”

For Immediate Release:

“Harm Reduction Nurses Denounce Ontario Decision to End Supervised Consumption Services”

Read the full statement here:

www.hrna-aiirm.ca/2026/03/17/h...

@rnao.ca @canadanurses.bsky.social

#cdnpoli #onpoli #Ontario #HarmReduction #Nurses

Extremely disappointing to see the lack of accountability and compassion from municipal leaders here.

“there's no correlation between our actions and the overdose events so no one's holding us to blame for that,”

Counterpoint, saying “we’re not to blame” does not exonerate you.

🧵

#bcpoli

BCCDC - Drug Alert - Province of BC January 26, 2026 • Posted by BCCDC BCCDC is issuing a province-wide alert because of an increase in drug poisonings. Opioids/down now often contain the sedative medetomidine. Watch for sedation, low heart rate. Use drug checking. Use at an OPS/SCS or with a buddy. Learn more: Medetomidine Advisory Poster

🚨Province-wide drug alert in BC🚨

The BCCDC has issued an alert due to an increase in drug poisonings.

“Opioids/down now often contain the sedative medetomidine.”

Poster: towardtheheart.com/assets/uploa...

Alert: towardtheheart.com/alerts

#bcpoli

UBCIC’s statement is a vital reminder that Indigenous leadership, human rights, and evidence-informed public health responses must be centred in decisions that affect people who use drugs.

We share their call for accountability, partnership, and policies grounded in care, not criminalization.

The HRNA stands with the UBCIC and echoes the serious concerns they have raised about BC’s decision to end the decriminalization pilot.

We are grateful for UBCIC’s leadership in naming the harms of returning to punitive approaches amidst this ongoing public health emergency.

#bcpoli #cdnpoli

Statement and call to action from members of our Beyond Do No Harm Network—as they point out, coercion and involuntary treatment for substance use disorders violates the ethical obligations of their role as health care workers, "undermines human rights, and will increase, not reduce, harm":

BC NDP Aims to side-step another legal challenge to broaden the criminalization of mental health, substance use The politics of the Mental Health Act amendments in Bill 32 reflect a trend of the BC NDP circumventing court rulings under Premier Eby’s leadership.

NEW analysis in The Mainlander:

The politics of the Mental Health Act amendments in Bill 32 reflect a trend of the BC NDP circumventing court rulings under Premier Eby’s leadership.
themainlander.com/2025/12/05/b...