Alberta model - Drug Data Decoded

A red brick building with Alberta and Canada flags flying above, and a dozen police vehicles parked in front.

Compassionate Intervention Act

Alberta government hiding additional drug jail plans

Newly obtained documents reveal a hidden plan to build a drug jail in Grande Prairie, raising questions about how many additional facilities are in the works.

A middle-aged man in a grey suit jacket stares despondently at a downward angle, his mouth set closed.

Health Care Crisis

Paramedics union head: "How do you resource a system when you're not telling the truth about it?"

Mike Parker, the president of the Alberta union that includes paramedics, reacts to reporting by Drug Data Decoded showing the Alberta government under-reports ambulance dispatches to drug toxicity by as much as 89 percent.

A man in a suit looks earnestly in the direction of the camera while standing at a podium with "DORSapp.ca" written on it.

Alberta model

Overdose app falters as Alberta government accelerates war on supervised consumption

Launched to government fanfare on sole-source contracts, the Digital Overdose Response System app is barely used most days and has registered just 51 ambulance dispatches over four years –– around 0.14 percent of the ministry's under-reported dispatches for opioid toxicity in that period.

Two images of men in their late forties or fifities wearing collared shirts. One looks serious and the other is smiling with arms crossed.

Marshall Smith

"I didn't know that was a thing": Calgary Herald pulls Guy Felicella's op-ed after defamation notice

On October 1, Guy Felicella published an op-ed in the Calgary Herald responding to a piece written by Marshall Smith that favoured expansion of police power to address public drug use. On October 6, a defamation notice from Smith to Felicella prompted the Herald to quietly remove the story.

Seven people posing and smiling in front of an advertisement poster reading "BC Centre on Substance Use".

Alberta model

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.'

Three magazine covers from Alberta Views nominated for the award, including 'What's Wrong With Rehab?'

Alberta model

'What's Wrong With Rehab?' wins gold at Alberta Magazine Awards

This story was written the first summer after Drug Data Decoded launched, appearing on the cover of the March 2024 Alberta Views. Since then, its conclusions and predictions have borne out. A look at some of the follow-up work on the Alberta Recovery Model.

Cartoon of people on laptops sitting around a desk with the words "Transparency" and "Accountability" hanging overhead.

Surveillance

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.

Maps showing the proposed footprints of the two drug jails in sparsely populated areas of Calgary and Edmonton.

forced abstinence

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.

Visual instructions on how to tie a bow line knot, which is frequently used to secure ships to a dock.

ROSC Solutions Group

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.

A tall man with long blonde hair and a woman with blonde and pink hair walk on a city street wearing backpacks.

Compassionate Intervention Act

RECLAIM Collective speaks out against forced abstinence

In advance of Support. Don't Punish on June 26, the founders of RECLAIM Collective share their thoughts on how the forced abstinence legislation recently passed by the Alberta government will impact their community.

A darkened room with an L-shaped row of clinical-looking seated booths in front of mirrors. Above each booth is a vent, and beside each one is a sharps disposal bin.

News

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?

A man in a two-tone tartan suit jacket and heavily gelled hair speaks into a microphone. Another man lurks in the background.

Compassionate Intervention Act

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.