Protests, marches and memories: B.C.’s toxic drug crisis emergency marks 9 years
B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry issued a joint statement marking the sombre anniversary.
#politics #health #crisis #BC #BCoverdosecrisis #OverdoseCrisis
https://globalnews.ca/news/11131284/bc-toxic-drug-crisis-emergency-9-years/
After years of litigation that delayed payments designed to combat the national opioid crisis, Purdue Pharma and the billionaire Sackler family who own it agreed to pay $7.4 billion to settle lawsuits over the opioid manufacturer’s role in the crisis and give up their company ownership #opioid #Drugs #Sacklers #overdosecrisis #overdose #deaths https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/23/health/sacklers-purdue-settlement-opioids.html
City officials have gone silent on whether #SF will pursue opening safe-consumption sites — even as sites prevent drug-use deaths in NYC. #OverdoseCrisis https://www.sfpublicpress.org/overdose-prevention-centers-nonstarter-in-sf-despite-success-in-nyc/
When it comes to #reporting on #NorthAmerica’s #OverdoseCrisis — the worst in our history — #misleading articles can increase #stigma against people who use #drugs, skew the public’s understanding of the issue, inspire #BadFaith policy and make it more difficult for other #journalists to gain the trust and respect of #MarginalizedCommunities.
Which brings me to a splashy, new piece of drug #journalism from U.K.-based newspaper the Telegraph, falsely claiming that #decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of drugs “made #Vancouver the #fentanyl capital of the world.”
The Telegraph’s story, like others before it, makes a number of other #misleading claims, including stating that #SafeSupply programs, which provide pharmaceutical alternatives to street drugs, are making the situation worse because that supply is being sold to street users, including young people. Some safe supply is being diverted, but there is no evidence that it’s led to more deaths or teens forming new addictions.
Reporting like this misses important context about the #DrugCrisis, allowing #politicians to drum up fear about #HarmReduction rather than confront how decades of #prohibition have impacted the current #FentanylCrisis. After the 2010s crackdown on prescription pain pills, many people dependent on #opioids turned to heroin instead. Eventually, #DrugTraffickers began cutting heroin with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times stronger, that is also cheaper and simpler to make and smuggle.
A man who was filmed overdosing without his consent is speaking out after going viral in a video by a YouTuber.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/3ak4x8/its-disgusting-viral-overdose-videos-are-hurting-people-at-their-lowest-moments?at_medium=Social%20media&at_campaign=Mastodon
#News #Drugs #overdosecrisis #vancouver #sanfrancisco
Governor Gavin Newsom signed a pair of bills that will make it easier to force people into treatment. Experts say it could make the overdose crisis worse.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7bpw4/california-drug-rehab-newsom?at_medium=Social%20media&at_campaign=Mastodon
#overdosecrisis #Drugs #DRUGADDICTION #California #Conservatorship #GavinNewsom
This is an act by a Mayor utterly lacking in any genuine vision - either generally or for any of the problems currently facing the City, such as the #OverdoseCrisis or the #DoomLoop - who just doubles down on bad policies (Drug War 2.0) or puts forward pretty but ineffective window dressing. ("A few concerts will rescue downtown.")
Her go to moves are: (1) more police, (2) what do rich VCs and real estate investors want me to?
These groups she listens to, though, are by and large even more bereft of real solutions than she is, but are desperate about any potential damage to their wealth, and so spaffing out anything they think might rescue them - as long as we pay for it.
Gov. Gavin Newsom will double the number of state police officers helping crack down on fentanyl dealing in San Francisco, he told The Chronicle
paywall free https://archive.ph/bkMnS
Op-Ed: I was addicted to fentanyl. Here's what we should be doing about it.
The National Institutes of Health concluded in a study that “[safe consumption sites] are associated with lower overdose mortality,” and “67% fewer ambulance calls for treating overdoses.”
Initiatives like safe injection sites do not enable nor encourage people to use drugs.
Even if you can’t get behind the idea of saving someone’s life, and care only about getting addicts out of public view, listen to the evidence that demonstrates that safe injection sites achieve that aim. A study in Vancouver, Canada, showed that safe injection sites actually reduced the prevalence of public drug use in the surrounding area.
https://www.sfgate.com/politics-op-eds/article/how-to-stop-fentanyl-addiction-17884743.php
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If only we had politicians brave enough, bold enough to JUST DO IT.
Take a leaf from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas - pretend you don't know the rules.
Irvin Cartagena faced a potential life sentence for supplying drugs that caused “The Wire” actor’s overdose, but a guilty plea allows for less prison time.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgwz3j/michael-k-williams-drug-dealer-pleads-guilty
#News #MichaelK.Williams #homicide #fentanyl #deathbydealer #tranq #overdose #overdosecrisis #Drugs
After a California doctor was labeled an "imminent danger" to the public, the consequences were devastating for his patients and their families.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy7qqv/dea-beverly-hills-doctor-shut-down-opioids
#News #Drugs #overdosecrisis #TheWaronDrugs #Opioids #dea #Politics
