Drug Data Decoded: Top Stories of 2025

Dear reader,

At a Palestine solidarity rally in Halifax this fall, musician Art Bouman thanked the audience for attending and "remaining grounded in reality" – choosing truth over expediency. This struck me broadly as the sad state of discourse on what constitutes 'public interest,' as we see governments at all levels across the country adopt the tactics of Alberta's drug war revival.

Municipalities are unleashing police on people living in tents while provincial governments implement forced abstinence legislation on literally no evidence.

Federally, Correctional Services Canada is experimenting with unproven yet privately profitable opioid agonist 'treatments' on prisoners.

Internationally, the drug toxicity crisis has been manipulated to justify American attacks on neighbours, escalating to the murders of innocent people on boats and this weekend's coup in Venezuela.

A century of failed drug policy is at the heart of some of the most horrific events playing out in plain sight. The necessity of ending the drug war, and stripping its proponents of power, has never been more urgent.

Like Canada's other genocidal exploits, it isn't enough to simply denounce Alberta's drug war revival. We must identify its vital organs and name the actions needed to destroy it. That's the job of Drug Data Decoded. That's where we find common cause.

This year alone, Drug Data Decoded filed seventy-seven freedom of information requests to dozens of public bodies. We successfully fought the notoriously secretive Calgary Police Service on four Information and Privacy Commissioner reviews (including one secured today!).

We paid out nearly $3,000 in fees to obtain records. This was only possible with the help of paid subscribers – it isn't sustainable otherwise.

There are now over 2,300 subscribers, 100 of them supporting with dollars. This means more guest articles, more freedom of information requests, better reporting, and greater impact.

So to everyone who chips in, shares stories with contacts, sends tips, and engages with the information on any level – thank you. I am working through a pile of documents that will continue to uncloak the network of drug war profiteers and their tactics, so stay locked to this site. If you are in a position to support, it's easy and flexible – every contribution matters!

Top stories of 2025

First, not a story of 2025, but Drug Data Decoded solidified its reputation as an indispensable investigative outlet with the Alberta Magazine Awards Gold Medal for the story, "What's Wrong With Rehab?" published by Alberta Views in March 2024. To their undying credit, Alberta Views read my entire acceptance speech, unedited, to the awards audience. You can find that speech at the bottom of the current piece.

10. University of Calgary destroyed records related to May 9 police violence against protesters. More to come on this, as the OIPC reviews the evidence indicating that documents were destroyed at the UofC that should have been retained for 25 years under UofC emergency event policy. The Progress Report discussed this and closely related stories by Jeremy Appel in a podcast interview.

University of Calgary destroyed records related to May 9 police violence against protesters

In a rare instance, University of Calgary officials were caught destroying records that should have been made available through freedom of information. The destroyed records — obtained from Calgary Police — included apparent plans for dismantling the May 9 pro-Palestine encampment protest.

Drug Data DecodedEuan Thomson

9. Drug inhalation is being choked off in Alberta. This story was a harbinger of things to come, as provincial and municipal officials have reinvigorated their twice-lost battle to shut down Calgary's only supervised consumption site. The provincial government successfully closed Red Deer's only site in 2025 as well as Edmonton's hospital-based site, and the Lethbridge site is on the ropes following a December vote by the new city council.

Drug inhalation is being choked off in Alberta

Demand continues to increase dramatically for clean drug inhalation supplies, but procurement data obtained by Drug Data Decoded show the supply is being throttled back. Is the shortfall helping to drive Alberta cities to new overdose heights?

Drug Data DecodedEuan Thomson

8. BC government faces legal challenge as national news media promote forced abstinence. The Globe & Mail and Maclean's published stories that may as well have been comms for the BC government, as the battle for punitive drug policy crossed the Strait of Georgia to the province's capital city.

BC government faces legal challenge as national news media promote forced abstinence

Two long-form articles in national news outlets are promoting the BC government’s “secure care” policy the same week that the government faces a pivotal legal challenge on its expansive interpretation of the Mental Health Act.

Drug Data DecodedEuan Thomson

7. DULF coverage. Three stories detailed the court battle waged by the Drug User Liberation Front for their freedom and against the very anatomy of the unregulated drug toxicity crisis. (Includes guest article by the brilliant An Pyatt and Tyson Singh Kelsall ਟਾਈਸਨ ਸਿੰਘ.)

“Everyone knew what was happening,” judge admonishes Crown as DULF awaits trafficking verdict

Justice Catherine Murray closed the trial with remarks that showed sympathy for the accused and noted the confusing behaviour of Health Canada, the Vancouver police and all other political entities during and since the 2023 arrests of Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum.

Drug Data DecodedEuan Thomson

Court finds DULF guilty for compassion club “heralded as success”

Convictions are on hold as the compassion club founders prepare for a Charter challenge to begin on November 24.

Drug Data DecodedGuest Article

Who killed the Safer Supply Expert Reviews?

The Fifth Estate is reporting that two federally commissioned expert reviews provided unanimous support for rapidly scaling up safe supply, including compassion clubs, but the government silenced the findings. Drug Data Decoded has spent eleven months investigating: who killed the expert reviews?

Drug Data DecodedEuan Thomson

6. My Recovery Plan coverage. Three stories detailing the Alberta government's fumbling of the privacy of thousands of people who use drugs – many of them enrolled in the app without informed consent – set the groundwork for ongoing revelations by the official opposition in the Alberta legislature.

“Coercion at its finest”: Ministry mandating My Recovery Plan participation for recovery service access

The privately owned, sole-sourced app that collects personal health information of people entering recovery programs was launched as ‘voluntary’ to comply with Alberta privacy laws. But eight months later, it isn’t voluntary anymore.

Drug Data DecodedEuan Thomson

Province to abandon My Recovery Plan amid Auditor General snooping

Alberta’s Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction is quietly terminating its contract with a personal data-harvesting app and replacing it with a publicly-owned ‘bed availability dashboard.’ The move coincides with reported scrutiny of ministry spending by the Auditor General.

Drug Data DecodedEuan Thomson

Personal health data of My Recovery Plan users are vulnerable to US CLOUD Act

The Alberta government confirmed it is ending My Recovery Plan, the app that ostensibly tracked recovery progress & facility wait lists. However, the app is hosted by Amazon, placing users’ personal health data at the mercy of the American Cloud Act.

Drug Data DecodedEuan Thomson

5. Saskatchewan government funded two advisory reviews by ROSC Solutions Group. Corporate capture of Mental Health and Addictions ministry funding in Alberta appears to be getting replicated in Saskatchewan, as the company at the centre of several questionable procurement deals in Alberta entered the neighbouring province to produce 'advisory reports.'

Saskatchewan government funded two advisory reviews by ROSC Solutions Group

ROSC Solutions Group, a top recipient of AB recovery contracts, was funded for two reports on operations of Saskatchewan recovery centres. Their outcomes are creating a new beachhead for the privatized, abstinence-focused ‘recovery-oriented system of care.’

Drug Data DecodedEuan Thomson

4. Edmonton set opioid poisoning records while Province quietly hid medical examiner review. Undermining the provincial government's propaganda declaring victory over drug toxicity deaths, skyrocketing deaths in Edmonton continue to reveal that the province is at the mercy of supply toxicity – not 'lack of treatment beds.' Meanwhile, a politically embarrassing report buried for years was forced to daylight through a Drug Data Decoded freedom of information request, following a tip from a reader.

Edmonton set opioid poisoning records while Province quietly hid medical examiner review

Edmonton EMS dispatches for opioid poisoning have hit their highest weekly count ever. While other provincial governments issue warnings, Alberta has been hiding a key mortality report that could have informed solutions on the ground.

Drug Data DecodedEuan Thomson

3. Calgary police "image recognition" software identifies individuals in photos & videos posted online. This story, revealing likely adoption of facial recognition by Alberta's police agencies, outran by four months the Edmonton Police Service's announcement that they are 'piloting' AI facial recognition in bodyworn cameras – the first police agency in North America to do so. Obtaining the documents underpinning this story took fifteen months of battling Calgary police, who initially 'lost' the request in 2024, then demanded $1,133 in processing fees after being ordered to release the documents by the Information and Privacy Commissioner in April 2025. The folks at The Progress Report picked up this story through a podcast interview.

Calgary police “image recognition” software identifies individuals in photos & videos posted online

Documents show that two years after being caught using Clearview AI facial recognition software, Calgary police signed contracts for AI software that scours photos and videos for individuals. Have police agencies across Canada taken a secret shortcut to facial recognition?

Drug Data DecodedEuan Thomson

2. Compassionate Intervention Act coverage. With the passing of Compassionate Intervention Act in April 2025, Alberta expanded its child forced abstinence legislation – unmatched in its coercive violence nationwide – to people who use drugs of all ages. New to the legislation is that detention can be extended essentially indefinitely, meaning people sucked into the system may be held for years. Reporting revealed that after nearly twenty years of the legislation for children, no outcome data – including survival of children in the system – has ever been conducted. Later, Drug Data Decoded followed a reader's tip to discover the locations of the planned facilities to detain people under the Act.

Survival of Alberta children forced into drug withdrawal is not monitored

The Alberta government has yet to release its proposed Compassionate Intervention Act but indicated in 2023 that the Act would extend existing legislation for forced abstinence of children to adults. Documents show that survival and other data are not tracked after children exit the system.

Drug Data DecodedEuan Thomson

Alberta to eliminate due process for people who use drugs

The Alberta government is going full MAGA with its Compassionate Intervention Act, which will strip people who use drugs of due process and force them into months-long medical incarceration.

Drug Data DecodedEuan Thomson

Alberta government reveals drug jail locations in procurement document

The Alberta government has issued a request for interested parties to participate in the procurement process for two forced abstinence detention facilities, to be located in northwest Calgary and northeast Edmonton – right beside existing carceral institutions.

Drug Data DecodedEuan Thomson

1. Alberta recovery programs require private 'coaches,' emails show. This story contributed to the emerging evidence that ROSC Solutions Group may have secured preferred access to government contracts through cozy relationships with the premier's former chief of staff, Marshall Smith. These revelations continue to unfold in the provincial legislature as the opposition does its own homework: see MLA Janet Eremenko's impressive question period exchanges here and here.

Alberta recovery programs require private ‘coaches,’ emails show

As one recovery centre admits that recovery coaches supplied by Bowline Health are now mandatory to access its residential services, it is unclear if the Province will mandate its coaches across the recovery system. Meanwhile, the company’s vertical integration expands to emergency rooms.

Drug Data DecodedEuan Thomson

Many thanks again for your engagement, and for "remaining grounded in reality." Believing convenient fairy tales told by our power brokers is a choice, not an inevitability. So please keep sharing!

To wrap this up, here's my acceptance speech at the Alberta Magazine Awards:

Thank you to the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association for recognizing this work, which belongs to people criminalized for drug use across Alberta and whose experiences of state violence guide my investigative reporting. I owe a debt of gratitude to Alberta Views for bringing this story to life, to my brother Jimmy Thomson for his early editing, and to the people I interviewed for the story: Brandon Shaw, Elaine Hyshka, Esther Tailfeathers, David Hodgins and the recovery centre workers who chose to remain anonymous.

Eighteen months after my story was published, we are now seeing the worst of its conclusions become reality: drug jails and police violence for people forced to live in tents while the government continues cutting away their safety net. Speaking as someone who has experienced police brutality and criminalization on Alberta soil for standing against Palestinian genocide, I urge journalists and publishers to unite against fascism everywhere it appears.

I believe the current Alberta government reflects many of the worst instincts of the MAGA movement seizing hold of the United States, and no one is safe until everyone is safe.

Drug Data Decoded provides analysis using news sources, publicly available data sets and freedom of information submissions, from which the author draws reasonable opinions. The author is not a journalist.

This content is not available for AI training. All rights reserved.

Editorial mandate.