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Filter by media type: Written by CAPUD , News Articles , Press Releases , Documentaries
How Buying My Drugs Online Has Been Working for Me
A reliable supply of drugs can save lives. That’s exactly why harm reductionists are pushing for widely accessible, regulated safe supplythroughout Canada and beyond. Until we get that, finding trusted unregulated vendors is the best we can do. We drug users need to share information about sources as much as possible to help each other through this ongoing crisis of drug poisoning deaths.
How the Pandemic Hit People Who Use Drugs, in Their Own Words
“A routine failure of mainstream journalism is to write about drugs without listening to the people who use them. To that end, Filter asked a handful of marginalized people who use drugs to share, in their own words, what the past few months have been like for them. Our interviews have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.”
Fuelling a crisis: Lack of treatment for opioid use in Canada’s prisons and jails
“One flashpoint of this crisis is Canada’s correctional facilities. Opioid-related deaths are increasing among incarcerated people. Post-release, their prospects are even worse: in the two weeks after release, a prisoner’s risk of overdose is more than 50 times higher than in the general population. One in 10 of all overdose deaths is a prisoner released in the past year.”
Canadian Drug Users Need Us Doctors to Step Up With Safe Supply
“The tennis player Arthur Ashe once said that to take on a challenge, “start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.” In the face of Canada’s national crisis of illicit drug poisoning, physicians and nurse practitioners who care for people who use drugs could consider Ashe’s advice.”
Safe Consumption Means Safe Inhalation, Too: An All-Inclusive Model
“As a former crack cocaine user, I’ve been on both ends of sharing a glass stem. I know how people experiencing stimulant dependency may be more inclined to take risks, like sharing pipes or having unprotected sex. So I’ve been excited to learn more about a project in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan’s largest city, that includes a center for safely smoking substances.”
Methadose: A Parable of Putting Profit Before Human Lives
“I have been on both compounded methadone, which is “regular” methadone (or Metadol-D), and Methadose, and I can say first-hand that Methadose is far less effective. The half-life is 12-14 hours instead of 24-36; you still have aches and pains in your legs, you wake up sick and so then you use. Sometimes to use is to die.”
Canada Is So Close to Decriminalizing Drugs: Let’s Make It Happen
“The decriminalization movement has been propelled by new collective understandings of the racist, costly and deadly failings of the criminal justice system. As calls to defund or abolish the police grow, it is inevitable that police will ultimately have to stand down from the drug war. It’s just a matter of how.”
How we can help keep people who use drugs alive during COVID-19
“As someone who uses drugs and very recently experienced an overdose, I know how important it is to not use alone. In July, I was saved by two people who administered naloxone and performed CPR, including rescue breathing until paramedics responded. Like my overdose, most overdoses are accidental and most are preventable.”
As a Fentanyl User, I Know How Much We Need a Safe Supply
“The odor of burning vinegar associated with the transdermal fentanyl patch will probably always be one of my favourite smells. To get the fentanyl from the patch, you need to do a chemical abstraction. Vinegar is not the safest method but I always found it the most effective.”
Why the Drug User Liberation Front Gave Out Free, Checked Drugs in Vancouver
“The Drug User Liberation Front showed that safer supply can be implemented through multiple pathways including buyers clubs,” he told Filter. “Drug users were handing out free cocaine and opium. There was a lineup of over 200 people waiting patiently to receive their free drugs.”
Why I Overdosed During the Pandemic, and Why I Survived
“Luckily, I was using around other people. After years of absorbing harm reduction messaging, I didn’t use alone, even though I was intoxicated and could easily have made that decision. Thankfully, I didn’t save the fentanyl for when I got home and went to sleep. That’s what I normally would do.”
