CRM 1300 DOCUMENTARY UOTTAWA

Canada's overdose epidemic: Floods theres only 4mc questions about the video so idek if this is gonna help

How many Canadians lost their lives due to fatal overdoses in 2016?

more than 12,800 Canadians lost their lives due to overdoses

• in 2016 3,023

• in 2017 4,120

• in 2018

Between January and March 2019 1,082 lives taken

What is supervised consumption services?

supervised consumption services provide a clean environment and equipment for people who use drugs.

• These services help prevent disease and overdoses

• Service exist in both unsanctioned and sanctioned capacity

• A federal law that prohibits activities related to controlled substances

• Unsanctioned services are conducted by grassroots, movements  made up of health care workers, activists, and people who use drugs. 

What is harm reduction about?

Harm reduction is about preventing overdoses but also reversing overdoses

What is Naloxone?

Naloxone is a drug that temporarily stops overdoses by blocking the the effects of opioids on the brain

• Nasal spray version: most popular 

• Injection version: injected into a muscle in the shoulder or thigh

Social exclusion

A theoretical concept

A lens which people look at reality and not reality itself- said by Arjan de Haa

According to CAPUD

Safe supply refers to a legal and regulated supply of drugs with mind and or body altering properties

• Only accessible through the illicit drug market

• Due to the toxicity and unregulated drug supply many people such as activists and drug users called upon policy makers to implement a safe supply in Canada

Which province is the most effected by the ongoing overdose epidemic?

British Columbia 

• BC is also the most PROACTIVE province 

• since 2016 BC has seen over 4,300 overdoses 

• A study led by BC center for disease control suggests that overdose deaths would be 2.5x  higher without harm reduction and treatment strategies 

the late 1990s

in the 1990s Vancouver had a call to action to offer safe injection sites

Similar services were offered in parts of Europe to address a HIV epidemic

what happened in 2003?/ what was the first safe injection site

in 2003 INSITE was given federal exemption and became the first sanctioned supervised consumption site in North America

Supervised consumption services

• Super stigmatized in communities 

• According to health Canada, since INSITE opened in 2003 the federal government has provided exemption to 39 states across the country 

• Discriminatory drug policies  and backlash from communities is still a concern for activists and people who use drugs 

Stigma does not only exist among citizens 

Drug possession  and consumption is still a criminal offence enforced by the Canadian government 

A lot of deaths making it one of Canada’s worst health crisis 

• Because of this there is a growing push for a better drug policy that require people who use drugs to create a better policy 

Federal Minister of health Tony Clements 

• brought to the supreme court where INSITE was given the go ahead to keep operating

• Conservatives appealed the courts choice and the appeal was dismissed

what happened in 2010

in 2010 the federal government applied to the supreme court of Canada where it was unanimously ruled that the Health Ministers efforts to have INSITE removed went against the Charter of rights and freedoms

Conservative government forming in provinces

Many feared that in the 2019 election that the country would vote conservative ruining the future of harm reduction in canada

What happened in 2015?

New democratic party was elected in Alberta 

• Harm reduction methods were ramped up in the province 

• 7 supervised consumption sites in four years HOWEVER in 2019 the united conservative party under Jason Kenney  formed government making the future of harm reduction in Alberta uncertain 

The war on drugs became infamous south of the border in United States

• in 1971 when former President Richard Nixon declared it so

what happened in early 2019

the life expectancy stopped rising for the first time in four decades as a result of overdose deaths