Mish Waraksa, a Primary Care Nurse Practitioner with over four years of experience working in safer opioid supply programs in Toronto, discussed how contaminants in the illicit opioid supply chain complicate the job of healthcare workers and the life-threatening side effects that come with Benzodiazepines and other impurities getting mixed into the street supply.

The conversation also focuses on the disinformation and subsequent spread of misinformation to the public about harm reduction practices, specifically safer supply, by both media and politicians, usually from the Conservative side of the aisle. It's important to understand these issues as a community, as understanding and support are crucial for the future of these life-saving harm-reduction resources.

“I’ve looked back at the history of the discourse around methadone in Canada and North America, and it was really the exact that was said about methadone,” said Waraksa. “That this isn’t really the place of medicine. People shouldn’t be prescribing drugs for people who are addicted to drugs. Concerns around diversion. Concerns that this attracts crime to good neighbourhoods. Sometimes, it’s word for word what is being said about safer supply, but back in the seventies. So, I try to keep in mind that this is a certain political moment. Things have obviously changed with methadone, where there would be few and far between people who say we shouldn’t offer methadone, and maybe one day, we’ll be in the same place with a safer supply or with a whole range of options for people who use drugs.”

Health Canada's Substance Use and Addictions Program (SUAP) supplied funding for the Safer Opioid Supply program at the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre. This was seed funding for programs only available for a maximum of five years. It was hoped that other levels of government or other organizations would step in to keep funding available for these programs across Canada.

The time-limited funding has allowed a wide range of innovative and evidence-informed projects to be set up nationwide, including substance use prevention, harm reduction, and treatment initiatives. However, the programs are in their final year of federal funding, and the urgent need for continued support is clear. Many politicians and media outlets have created a toxic culture in terms of how harm reduction, especially safer supply, is perceived. This is threatening the future of these life-saving programs, and the time for action is now.

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/

Forx - https://forx.bandcamp.com/track/safe-supply

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https://www.patreon.com/ColinBurrowes

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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/

Support Wood-stein.ca by becoming a Patron.

https://www.patreon.com/ColinBurrowes

or by donating through Paypal

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=QBZG6EHTUYZ4Y

This podcast features a discussion about the push to provide more effective harm reduction services, education, outreach and advocacy to enhance and save the lives of people most at risk from the toxic drug crisis in the Atlantic provinces of Canada.

Katie Upham is the Harm Reduction Educator of the Substance User Network of the Atlantic Region (SUNAR) and a member of many other advocacy and drug user groups such as The Canadian Association of People Who Use Drugs and Moms Stop the Harm. She uses her experience with substance use to advocate for change in health care settings, and drug policies, and to support the rights of those with experience of substance use. She believes that people who use or have used substances must be justly included in all practices, programming and guidelines that concern them to reduce stigma and save lives.

Emily Wadden also relies on knowledge acquired from her experience with substance use in her role as Program Manager, of the Safe Works Access Program (SWAP), part of the AIDS Committee of Newfoundland and Labrador. She is also a member of SUNAR, which has had a positive effect on her outlook, in a society that disparages adult drug users.

When it comes to making policies regarding substance use in Canada, the people who have experience using drugs, have knowledge that needs to be heard. As drug user unions from coast to coast say in the slogan, “Nothing about us without us,” they need a seat at the table, and they need to be heard when they speak.

Support Wood-stein.ca by becoming a Patron.

https://www.patreon.com/ColinBurrowes

or by donating through Paypal

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=QBZG6EHTUYZ4Y

Moms Stop the Harm - https://www.momsstoptheharm.com/

The Substance User Network of the Atlantic Region (SUNAR) - https://www.sunar.ca/

Safe Works Access Program – St. John’s - https://acnl.net/services/swap/

Aerhyn Lau - https://aerhyn.bandcamp.com/track/tune-up-thursdays-week-94-october-19th-ahead-by-a-century-the-tragically-hip-cover