'It just doesn't stop': Perspectives of women who use drugs on increased overdoses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction: In Canada, the COVID-19 pandemic collided with an ongoing overdose crisis driven by a toxic unregulated drug supply. Public health guidance intended to limit transmission of COVID-19 (e.g.

Preferred pharmaceutical-grade opioids to reduce the use of unregulated opioids: A cross-sectional analysis among people who use unregulated opioids in Vancouver, Canada.

Objectives: Many people who use drugs in the United States and Canada continue to access the contaminated unregulated drug supply, resulting in the ever-escalating overdose epidemic. In Canada, even in areas where healthcare providers are authorized to prescribe alternatives to the unregulated supply (e.g.

Perspectives of patients who inject drugs on a needle and syringe program at a large acute care hospital.

Background: People who inject drugs in North America often continue to inject while hospitalized, and are at increased risk of premature hospital discharge, unplanned readmission, and death. In-hospital access to sterile injection supplies may reduce some harms associated with ongoing injection drug use. However, access to needle and syringe programs in acute care settings is limited.

Flawed reports can harm: the case of supervised consumption services in Alberta.

Supervised consumption services have been scaled up within Canada and internationally as an ethical imperative in the context of a public health emergency. A large body of peer-reviewed evidence demonstrates that these services prevent poisoning deaths, reduce infectious disease transmission risk behaviour, and facilitate clients' connections to other health and social services. In 2019, the Alberta government commissioned a review of the socioeconomic impacts of seven supervised consumption services in the province.

Operating an overdose prevention site within a temporary emergency shelter during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Setting: A temporary emergency shelter was established inside the Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta, to reduce COVID-19 transmission and mitigate health risks among people experiencing homelessness.

Intervention: A non-profit organization, Boyle Street Community Services, opened an overdose prevention site (OPS) between February and March 2022 inside the temporary emergency shelter. People accessed the shelter-based OPS to consume unregulated drugs (via injection, intranasally, or orally), receive medical aid, access sterile drug use equipment, and be connected to additional health and social supports, without leaving the shelter.

Public health approaches to substance use: a scoping review protocol.

Objective: The aim of this scoping review is to describe how a public health approach to legal and illegal psychoactive substance use has been previously defined, and to identify its core values, concepts, activities, and goals.

Introduction: Jurisdictions globally are increasingly endorsing a public health approach to addressing psychoactive substance use. However, there is currently no agreed definition of this approach, and this term has been applied inconsistently in the literature, policy, and practice.

Social service providers' perspectives on caring for structurally vulnerable hospital patients who use drugs: a qualitative study.

Background: People who use drugs and are structurally vulnerable (e.g., experiencing unstable and/or lack of housing) frequently access acute care.

Policy actor views on structural vulnerability in harm reduction and policymaking for illegal drugs: A qualitative study.

Background: Health risks associated with drug use are concentrated amongst structurally vulnerable people who use illegal drugs (PWUD). We described how Canadian policy actors view structural vulnerability in relation to harm reduction and policymaking for illegal drugs, and what solutions they suggest to reduce structural vulnerability for PWUD.

Methods: The Canadian Harm Reduction Policy Project is a mixed-method, multiple case study.

The state of science on including inhalation within supervised consumption services: A scoping review of academic and grey literature.

Background: Internationally, many supervised consumption services (SCS) include drug inhalation (smoking). However, most research is focused on SCS for people who inject drugs. We aimed to: (1) synthesize the literature on including inhalation or other forms of non-injection drug use (e.

To what extent do supervised drug consumption services incorporate non-injection routes of administration? A systematic scoping review documenting existing facilities.

Background: Most of the existing research on supervised consumption services (SCS) is focused on injection drug use. Less is known about the applicability of SCS for people who consume drugs orally, intranasally, or through inhalation. This is problematic because people who use drugs through modes other than injection are also at risk of overdose death and other harm, and experience barriers accessing health and social services.

"Highly processed, highly packaged, very unhealthy. But they are low risk": exploring intersections between community food security and food safety.

Introduction: Food insecurity and foodborne disease are important issues in Canada, and the public health actions taken to address them can be conceptualized as factors shaping the food environment. Given emerging evidence that these two areas may interrelate, the objective of this study was to explore ways in which community food security efforts and food safety practices (and the population health issues they aim to address) may intersect in British Columbia, Canada, and interpret what this might mean for conceptualizing and attaining healthier food environments.

Methods: We conducted 14 key informant interviews with practitioners working in community food security and food safety in British Columbia, and used qualitative descriptive analysis to identify examples of intersections between the sectors.