Addiction and Urban Health Research Initiative

An open letter, led by the BC-CfE's Addiction and Urban Health Research Initiative, opposes mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences.

First Nations people — particularly women — are more likely to die from a drug overdose in British Columbia than non-aboriginal people, according to a recent BC-CfE study.

The Mounties were set to publicly acknowledge the benefits of projects like the Insite facility. Then they backed away.

Despite mountains of scientific evidence proving the prohibition on drugs such as heroin is a failure, governments in Canada, the U.S. and around the world continue to ignore the health and social harm caused by their antiquated policies, says the BC-CfE's Dr. Evan Wood.

Policies that criminalize drug users fuel the spread of AIDS and should be reformed, BC-CfE researchers said Monday.

Supervised medical treatment with heroin leads to significantly lower use of street heroin by chronic addicts than does injected or oral methadone, according to a study to be published Friday in the medical journal, Lancet.

Prescribing heroin to chronic addicts may be politically sensitive, but it is more effective than the substitute methadone at keeping drug abusers in treatment programmes, British scientists said on Friday.

Researchers from across scientific disciplines have been closely examining the impacts of law enforcement strategies aimed at controlling illicit drug use. The findings clearly demonstrate that politically popular “get tough” approaches actually make the drug problem worse, fuel crime and violence, add to government deficits, rob the public purse of potential revenue, help spread disease and divide families.

The BC-CfE's Dr. Thomas Kerr and Dr. Evan Wood are among a group of drug-treatment experts writing to express dismay about the continued misrepresentation of the evidence supporting the effectiveness of methadone treatment.

The BC-CfE's Dr. Evan Wood has received the inaugural Junior Doctor of the Year award from the British Medical Journal for his groundbreaking work related to HIV, public health, drug policy, and addiction.

The Conservative government's efforts to crack down on drug crimes may do more harm than good, a recent report suggests.

In Canadian cities like Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, one of the most pressing priorities for police is combatting an illegal drug trade that has spawned a rash of gangland violence in recent years. A provocative new report from a B.C. HIV-research agency, however, suggests that throwing more police resources at the problem will only make the bloodshed worse, not bring peace to the streets.