Injunction stalls Red Deer overdose prevention site rollback

The first legal decision favouring supervised consumption site users in Alberta since 2020 could turn the tide against five years of site closures.

Drug Data Decoded: Top investigations of 2024

Drug Data Decoded continued breaking important stories in Canadian drug policy through 2024, with intersections at policing, encampments and privatization of public services.

Province refuses to disclose Calgary Recovery Community contract awarded in 2023

Documents reveal new details about the recovery community grant competition hurried through the Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction in 2023. The Ministry continues to withhold details about the recipient previously hinted at by Drug Data Decoded.

UCP coordinated overdose prevention site closure with Red Deer city councillor

Documents show the United Conservatives were working with city councillors intent on driving the closure of supervised consumption services in Red Deer as early as 2022.

Police drive violence in the unregulated drug and sex work markets

Guest post: Police are invested in the sale, procurement & consumption of sex work & certain drugs. Their publicly funded communications reflect this – an opportunity for media.

Was Last Door granted Calgary Recovery Community?

Unannounced by the Alberta government, all signs point to the controversial UCP-aligned recovery organization bagging a lucrative contract for Calgary's new centre.

Calgary city council just says no

Calgary city council took a defiant stance against the Alberta government's attempt to have council do its dirty work. For once, the trash took itself out in Alberta.

Advocates rally against closure of supervised consumption service in Calgary

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Local advocates say supervised consumption services must be expanded and improved with drug inhalation capacity. A rally will be held on Tuesday, October 29.

DULF's legal update

Drug User Liberation Front co-founders Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum held a press conference with their lawyers on October 15, 2024 to correct disinformation about the compassion club and provide a legal update.

13 Student-led Groups Call for Compassion Clubs Now & DULF Charges To Be Dropped

Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy Vancouver, Migrant Students United UBC, Climate Justice UBC, UBC Social Justice Centre, CUPE 2278 Executive Committee and eight more student-led groups speak out.

Alberta's fiefdom of information

The Premier's office was in contact with the University of Calgary President's office during the peaceful May 9 Palestine solidarity demonstration. But after months of work, the events surrounding the violent deployment of riot police remain shrouded in secrecy.

Private recovery app targeting shelters, prisons & consumption sites may distort outcome data

An app that privatizes health information of recovery patients is aimed at Alberta shelters, correctional facilities and supervised consumption sites. In one case, data from the app that showed a negative outcome was suppressed, but the government still publicly reported it.

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Private org has control of Alberta recovery patients' health info

My Recovery Plan was implemented to evaluate and manage substance use treatment waitlists across Alberta. Documents reveal how it denies patients informed consent and control of their personal health information.

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“Appreciate the assist”: Oilers pass the puck as City and Police purge unhoused from homes

Documents reveal Edmonton Oilers executives pressure the City and Police to clear unhoused people from near Oilers property, weaponizing decampments and water station relocation to address safety concerns.

racial capitalism

Prohibition fuels drug war violence: Regulation can undercut it if done right

Intervention and regulation of the drug supply is indeed the only way out of British Columbia’s forever toxic drug emergency. But last week, the BC NDP rejected another high-level recommendation to create frameworks for non-medicalized access to opioids and other drugs.

Why is Vincent Lam distorting drug deaths?

The author and addiction physician continues disguising reactionary talking points as medical fact through Globe and Mail op-eds. In his latest, he misrepresents death rates in Timmins, belittles harm reduction and appears to cozy up to Poilievre's abstinence-focused drug strategy. In his latest of many Globe and Mail

drug user liberation

BCAPOM: You call them "kickbacks," we call them our fair share

The BC Association of People on Opiate Maintenance, Surrey Union of Drug Users, Care Not Cops, Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy Vancouver Chapter & Crackdown respond to recent coverage on pharmacy kickbacks, and the repercussions for them and the people they work with.

The agonizing proximity of safer supply in Alberta

Clinicians, parents and people who use drugs recall a recent past before the control-obsessed Alberta government vilified, scapegoated and denied regulated opioid access for those at highest risk. A short film by CATIE. Watch this. Background reading from Drug Data Decoded: * Ophelia Black v. the UCP * What's wrong

Inaugural ticket issued at violent University of Calgary crackdown disappears

Court dates for University of Calgary encampment began this week. With the first issued ticket failing to reach the prosecutor, police dodged evidence disclosure. This should raise questions around police accountability. Update, June 18, 2024: The arresting officer showed up at Euan Thomson's home on June 17 and

Calgary Police violated my Charter rights, brutalized me, and lied about it

Three complaints submitted to Calgary Police Commission and the CPS Professional Standards Section. Warning: this piece contains graphic video of police brutality. Proceed accordingly. Since May 9, Calgary Police Chief Mark Neufeld has worked hard to concoct a narrative that serves his interests and those of the officers and decision

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Vancouver Island physicians, healthcare staff sign open letter on political weaponization of workplace safety

The BC NDP are dangerously misrepresenting our workplaces in healthcare settings as an electoral strategy.

drug user liberation

DRUG USER LIBERATION FRONT TO PURSUE CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGE, ANNOUNCES FUNDRAISER

The founders of DULF, Jeremy and Eris, were arrested in October 2023 after their compassion club showed extremely promising results. Crown has decided to pursue charges.

Alberta police chiefs organized support for UCP election campaign

Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police built a "Coalition of the Willing" to conduct a public advocacy campaign supporting United Conservative Party drug policy with an explicit timeframe "before the May election" in 2023. The Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police (AACP), an organization comprising Alberta&

Hard Knox Talks & Toronto visit

I had a recent appearance on Hard Knox Talks, where we got into how policy manifests at street level, how government propaganda drives what we are told to call 'polarization,' and why people across the political and drug policy spectrum should unify around reallocating excessive wealth at the