Katie Langille is a Primary Care Nurse Practitioner in the SOS Program at the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre. This community-based health service organization in southwest Toronto offers a wide range of services, including primary health care, dental care, harm reduction, health promotion, counselling, and community development programming.

The SOS program is a Safer Opioid Supply program established at Parkdale Queen West in 2020. Clients in the program receive prescriptions for pharmaceutical opioids to decrease their reliance on the toxic, unpredictable street supply of opioids. Staff also support clients by offering case management, appointment accompaniment, counselling, harm reduction education, recreational/drop-in programming, mobile care, and connections to other services at Parkdale Queen West and in the community.

This podcast discussion covers how synthetic opioids such as Fentanyl have replaced heroin in the street supply and how the war on drugs has led to stronger, more contaminated illicit opioids being available. This not only complicates the job healthcare workers have when providing harm reduction services but also causes unintended damage to the health of drug users through contamination.

The conversation also focuses on the misinformation being spread to the public about harm reduction practices by both media and politicians, usually from the Conservative side of the aisle, and the damage done to vulnerable communities through spreading false information.

“I think the flip side of the story we’re hearing now in the media, which is drugs are bad, your diverted safe supply is getting sold on the schoolyard – which, P.S., has zero evidence for it,” said Langille. “This story is that people are morally bereft because they are using Fentanyl and, therefore, don’t necessarily deserve our care. These stories are being told in the media way too much, and I think what’s not happening is the true story of people who use substances. Not only the people that I work with who are maybe on the more severe end of substance use disorder, who are struggling a little bit more. But people who are super successful and still using, whether it’s recreationally or whether they also need to go to treatment centres and struggle. Like I said, it’s not an easy story to tell, and I don’t know where my role as a provider comes into it except that I know I need to be cautious, but I do think people don’t hear the other side of the story and I do think that’s a bit of a problem.”

Links related to this episode

Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre - https://pqwchc.org/

SOS - https://pqwchc.org/programs-services/harm-reduction/safer-opioid-supply-sos-program/

Koi Canis - https://koicanis.bandcamp.com/track/harm-reduction

Crackdown Episode 34 – The Iron Law - https://www.crackdownpod.com/episodes/34-the-iron-law

Toronto’s Drug Checking Service - https://drugchecking.community/about/

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