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Canada - Safe supply of drugs for Downtown Eastside residents given green light, says Vancouver

S.J.B.

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Safe supply of drugs for DTES residents given green light, says Vancouver
Justin McElroy
CBC
March 26th, 2020
The federal government has given the green light for a safe supply of drugs for Vancouver's Downtown Eastside residents in light of the COVID-19 crisis, according to Mayor Kennedy Stewart.

"We must tackle the poisoned drug epidemic — something that has already cost us more than 1,000 lives," said Stewart during a news conference, where a wide variety of measures were announced to help residents of the Downtown Eastside from contracting or spreading the illness linked to the novel coronavirus.

"The federal government has taken all measures required for this to be operational," said Stewart. "Now we're just waiting for the provincial guidelines."

The safe supply of pharmaceutical drugs would be focused on the 20 to 30 per cent of users in the community not already connected with health-care providers and existing safe injection sites, Stewart said.

B.C.'s chief medical health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has called for a safer supply of drugs for more than a year, saying it would allow drug users to "seek help without the fear of being charged criminally."
Read the full story here.
 
At least there is some good coming out of this. Even after the COVID crisis is done, I think there's a good chance that whatever maintenance program is started here will be continued.
 
COVID-19 pandemic pushes B.C. to move forward on safe take-home drug supply strategy
Andrea Woo
The Globe and Mail
March 26th, 2020
British Columbia is moving to provide drug users with a take-home supply of regulated substances as part of its COVID-19 pandemic response strategy for vulnerable populations.

The City of Vancouver and drug-policy experts have called for “safe supply” for some time, but reluctance from regulatory bodies and the province restricted the provision of drugs such as hydromorphone and methadone to clinical settings that require witnessed daily ingestion.

As the new coronavirus swept the globe, health officials issued directives for people to restrict their movements, stay home and self-isolate when necessary, presenting a major obstacle to people with chronic substance-use disorders who are unable to stockpile their prescription medications.

...

Eligible patients must be at risk of COVID-19 infection or confirmed positive, have a history of ongoing active substance use, and be deemed at high risk of withdrawal or overdose.

While opioids are the main driver of B.C.’s overdose crisis, the new guidelines extend to other substances, such as stimulants, benzodiazepines, tobacco and alcohol.
Read the full story here.
 
While opioids are the main driver of B.C.’s overdose crisis, the new guidelines extend to other substances, such as stimulants, benzodiazepines, tobacco and alcohol.

so can I go bug Health Canada (or the city of V) for some LSD? I, uh, I'm going to go into severe acid withdrawals. Yeah. That's the ticket.

... can I also have a 40 oz and a pack of Cubans too? While we're at it some weed too. I have a chronic illness - if I don't have chronic, I get ill.
 
so can I go bug Health Canada (or the city of V) for some LSD? I, uh, I'm going to go into severe acid withdrawals. Yeah. That's the ticket.

... can I also have a 40 oz and a pack of Cubans too? While we're at it some weed too. I have a chronic illness - if I don't have chronic, I get ill.

Yeah, sort of how I feel about all this.

I don't begrudge anyone anything and I understand the severity of addiction, but why the fuck can't I get a safe MDMA supply and have to hide my mushroom use?

I guess it's a good start in normalising drugs policy, but what about the rest of us? I could die from fentanyl OD too, doing M, for example. Even having tested it with reagents.

I guess I should give Health Canada due credit for partially funding the drug testing at CAMH and St Mike's Hospital in Toronto that I have decided not to avail myself of during the current viral noise.....but I still have to struggle to find some M in the first place....I'm dying of alcohol-related brain degenration because I can't find good fucking MDMA which I would much rather use sparingly than these damn pints and wine.
 
....I'm dying of alcohol-related brain degenration because I can't find good fucking MDMA which I would much rather use sparingly than these damn pints and wine.

I found M, though not that lovey dovey stuff from back in the day (but thats a story for another thread lol), only mildly helpful in treating my alcoholism. Psyches were much more useful. DXM too

But Im with the sentiment that all drugs need to have a safe supply. Unknown contents and purity are an issue in much more than just opiates/opiods .. but Id guess the reason for starting here is simply due to the sheer number of people dying from the tainted supply, as opposed to those dying from mislabelled LSD. Alcohol and cigarettes have a "safe" supply and kill mroe people tho... js
 
I found M, though not that lovey dovey stuff from back in the day (but thats a story for another thread lol), only mildly helpful in treating my alcoholism. Psyches were much more useful. DXM too

I have a batch of M but can't send it for testing at the hospital lab because of the pandemic so I'm sitting on it til it passes. I also have shrooms. I'm not trying to quit drinking, I'm just saying I would much rather try this M out than drink because I haven't had any in years and it's "healthier" than alcohol. Toxicity of 100mg of M < Toxicity of 4 pints.

Maybe I will try and quit though with the help of my fungal friends.
 
Sorry for the confusion... I wasn’t trying to imply you needed to quit or anything lol js m even in reasonable doses seem to exasperate my drinking come midweek ... mind often times I’d be over 100 mg lol ... only the last few years, after prolonged absences, have i come to appreciate sensible doses again

But I digress... yay safe supply
I hope this is only a start

(Ps a place in Vancouver does ir spec for free via mail)
 
I heard of that mail-in service but they only do IR spectrometry? The labs at CAMH and St Mike's do GCMS which is better, no? I can wait.

The day I start fiending for MDMA in my mid-30s after not having done it in over a decade is the day you guys take me out back on a one way ticket. ;)
It's safely in my beautiful hand made Syrian wood drug box with the LSD, just waiting for this pandemic nonsense to fuck off.

I'm pretty sensitive and also get paranoid about my heart for some reason (no medical issues, just being a twat) and so like to keep doses low. Wish I could say the same about booze ><.

Anyway, I probably DO need to quit alcohol because binge drinking is fucking terrible and I already know from my own experience of taking lengthy breaks in the past that it takes a good 3-4 weeks for my thinking to clear up after the last day drinking so I can feel the negative effects on my brain.
I think I might take a break through this pandemic shit. Like til pubs are open again.
 
The labs at CAMH and St Mike's do GCMS which is better, no?
Yep, that's definitely better. I wasn't aware of that service before you mentioned it, but I'm glad to see it's associated with the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like they accept mailed-in samples.
 
Yep, that's definitely better. I wasn't aware of that service before you mentioned it, but I'm glad to see it's associated with the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like they accept mailed-in samples.

No, there are three public health clinics in central Toronto where you have to physically go drop samples off which are then sent to either CAMH (probably for samples dropped off to the Queen West Health Ctr) or St Mik'es Hospital (for samples dropped off at the two downtown health clinics).

I was so stoked to get to use it but didn't get my M til a week before viral shutdown....I'm not even sure the Queen West Health Ctr is open at the moment and a lot of labs are switching to SARS-CoV-2 testing because of our backlog in Ontario.

Yeah, it's too bad they don't accept mail-ins, but perhaps this service could be exapanded across Canada where facilities exist after this pandemic noise is over.
I'm super curious to know how they present results to people. I want full print outs!!! :D
I hope it's not just a piece of paper with MDMA:70%; Caffeine: 25%; Uknown: 5%, for example.
 
One of my long term dreams is to get a GCMS and start doing mail-in testing for y'all. Some years ago, I ran a GCMS at my work and did under-the-table testing. Blew the socks off of most people as it was way more accurate than a color test.

Is it questionably legal? Of course it is. But it's also a public service and a valuable one at that.

Maybe if I can cop this sweet, sweet coronavirus cash credit the government is handing out, I can find a used model somewhere and get it running.

I'm super curious to know how they present results to people. I want full print outs!!! :D
I hope it's not just a piece of paper with MDMA:70%; Caffeine: 25%; Uknown: 5%, for example.

The GC analyses I did were usually two pages, one for the GC trace showing the peaks (individual compounds) and the mass spectrum of the main component, the second was a boring percent-analysis breakdown that said basically "MDMA X%, MDP2Pol Y%, etc". It was a rare day that I came across anything truly unknown though as I had some pretty comprehensive databases too, NIST08 and SWGDRUG.
 
One of my long term dreams is to get a GCMS and start doing mail-in testing for y'all. Some years ago, I ran a GCMS at my work and did under-the-table testing. Blew the socks off of most people as it was way more accurate than a color test.

Is it questionably legal? Of course it is. But it's also a public service and a valuable one at that.

Maybe if I can cop this sweet, sweet coronavirus cash credit the government is handing out, I can find a used model somewhere and get it running.



The GC analyses I did were usually two pages, one for the GC trace showing the peaks (individual compounds) and the mass spectrum of the main component, the second was a boring percent-analysis breakdown that said basically "MDMA X%, MDP2Pol Y%, etc". It was a rare day that I came across anything truly unknown though as I had some pretty comprehensive databases too, NIST08 and SWGDRUG.
At my work, we were actually brought samples by the police of substances people were caught with as they wanted to do a report and show people how dangerous their drugs actually were. Kinda backfired on them because not one sample contained anything dangerous, it just showed that people were paying shit loads of money for what essentially was caffeine laced with mdma.
Love using the GCMS though, it really is interesting.
 
Nice one, @sekio.....that would be a great service.

I'm guessing the results that come back with an unknown component are usually because the database on hand is lacking, is that right?

That's why I'm hoping for a full result print out so that if they aren't using a good enough database, I could maybe run the findings by some people on here who know what's what and get some answers.

Super stoked to use this service...whenever the hell I finally can get to it.
 
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