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  • National Day of Action on the Overdose Crisis 2019

    National Day of Action on the Overdose Crisis 2019

    Three years after a public health emergency was called in British Columbia, the need and urgency to end the drug war is more pressing than it has ever been. The Public Health Agency of Canada recently released a grim statistic: more than ten thousand people in Canada have died from fatal overdose in under three years.

    Members of Moms Stop the Harm are all too familiar with the pain of loss. They came to the National Day of Action on the Overdose Crisis to remember their loved ones and fight for policy reform. At the heart of this crisis is a simple answer that remains painfully out of reach: a safe supply of drugs.

    Hundreds of people gathered at 10:30 a.m. outside of Insite, North America’s first sanctioned supervised injection site, for the National Day of Action. A band welcomed the crowd as people brought floats and carried signs.

    The tragedy touches all corners of society and attracted people from across the province. Similar events were happening in other provinces as well.

    (Interactive Map)

    The day was a national call for action. In 2017 alone, 4034 people died from fatal overdose across Canada.

    The drug war has been a catastrophic failure. Prohibition and criminalization have handed the global supply of drugs into the hands of highly organized, transnational criminal organizations where an insatiable drive for profit blinds them from the human toll. Drugs, now laced with fentanyl and its analogues, are ravaging communities with little regard for the safety of consumers.

    Canadian Drug Policy Coalition executive director Donald MacPherson addressed the media, echoing concerns around Canada’s fatal drug policies, which have created the current crisis, underscoring the need for a safe drug supply. The logic supporting this is so simple and strong, yet stigma born out of years of criminalization has shut down progress on this potentially powerful means to saving lives.

    After initial speeches outside of Insite by organizers and an opening performance by Culture Saves Lives, the massive crowd marched up Hastings Street, flanked by police and followed by media.

    They ended up at the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery where members of the community and their supporters spoke about the devastating toll of overdose deaths and unrelenting courage of people affected by the structural violence of prohibition.

    “We’re out there saving lives every day. We got a lot of power as people in the Downtown Eastside.”

    Malcolm (Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society)

    Despite the pain and grief etched on so many faces, there were strands of hope that connected people during the rally. Frontline workers, peers, and people who use drugs who have shouldered this crisis and life-saving responses including overdose prevention sites, supervised consumption services, naloxone distribution, and simply being there for people when needed, renewed a commitment to fight for their right to safety, security, and dignity.

    The fight continues; and so will we.

  • STIMULUS 2018: DRUGS, POLICY AND PRACTICE IN CANADA

    STIMULUS 2018: DRUGS, POLICY AND PRACTICE IN CANADA

    From October 3 – 5, 2018, advocates and those inspired to create new approaches to drugs will be together in Edmonton, AB. This has been a CDPC vision for a long time. We are extremely excited to be a key organizer along with our partners.

    Register here

    The conference will include a variety of activities including, workshops, plenaries, panels, oral presentations, photography, poster presentations, spoken word, art showings, book readings, community tours, plus a film festival.

    The conference is filling up fast and our full program will be up on the website in a couple of days. There will be a wide variety of sessions including an abstract driven track – thanks to all who submitted incredibly interesting abstracts. There will be five plenary sessions, one looking at the state of drug policy in Canada today, a people with lived experience plenary, a plenary highlighting those who are pushing the boundaries of innovation, a discussion on the impact of cannabis regulation on the broader drug policy picture, and a ‘where to from here?’ session to close the conference.

    We’ll have a film festival running throughout the conference, a public event staged by MomsStopTheHarm will bring the community of Edmonton into the conference to engage an amazing group of family leaders from across the country and a coalition of drug checking organizations will be putting on a workshop on the latest efforts in Canada to implement these services.

    Stimulus 2018: Drugs, Policy and Practice in Canada
    October 3-5, 2018

    Shaw Conference Centre
    Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

    Join us as work to end the unprecedented overdose crisis and churning policy challenges in Canada. Register here

    Twitter and Facebook: @stimulus2018

    Conference organizing partners: Alberta’s harm reduction organizations, Alberta Advocates Who Educate and Advocate Responsibly (AAWEAR), Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, Canadian Association of People who Use Drugs (CAPUD), Canadian AIDS Society, Association Québécoise des Centres D’intervention en Dépendance (AQPSUD), Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network

    If you are an individual or business interested in sponsoring this event, please visit the sponsorship page. If you have questions regarding the conference, please direct them here.

  • INTERNATIONAL INTEREST IN DRUG CHECKING

    INTERNATIONAL INTEREST IN DRUG CHECKING

    This is a guest blog provided by Nazlee Maghsoudi. The Canadian Drug Policy attended HR17 and we are pleased to share this account of the conference.

    INCREASING INTERNATIONAL INTEREST IN DRUG CHECKING: HIGHLIGHTS FROM HR17

    With growing international attention on the impacts and broad potential of drug checking services, a number of events at HR17 featured research findings and frontline experience with this harm reduction intervention.

    For the first time in its history, the 25th Harm Reduction International Conference (HR17) held in Montréal, Canada put drug checking – a harm reduction intervention that provides people who use drugs with information about purity, potency, and composition of their substances – front and centre on the agenda. Reflecting increasing international interest in implementing drug checking services, a pre-conference workshop, panel session, and press conference explored the impacts of drug checking on the health and wellbeing of people who use drugs in a variety of settings and across the spectrum of drug-using behaviour. As a harm reduction conference taking place against a backdrop of an opioid overdose crisis, drug checking in the form of fentanyl test strips were made available in the onsite medical room.

    On May 14, 2017 prior to the official opening of HR17, members of a Canadian National Working Group on Drug Checking organized a “Drug Checking Services and Analysis Workshop.” A free and public event, the workshop was well attended by local and international stakeholders from a variety of disciplines with existing expertise and interest in further learning about drug checking fundamentals along with different models of research evaluation and service provision that are currently being used around the world. Speakers included Helena Valente (Porto University, Portugal), Brun Gonzalez (Programa de Análisis de Sustancias, Mexico), and Dr. Mireia Ventura (Energy Control, Spain). Attendees were treated to speakers’ unique perspectives on the rationale behind drug checking, effective methods in the field, and how to build upon and sustain existing programs. Speakers agreed that drug checking offers much more than test results – including education and support around drug use – and importantly, attracts people who use drugs who otherwise would not interact with health services about their drug use. Noting that the majority of harm reduction efforts have traditionally focused on people who inject drugs, Mr. Gonzalez described drug checking as essential to “full spectrum harm reduction,” an approach that provides appropriate services for all people who use drugs despite where they fall on the spectrum of drug use. Burgeoning evidence suggests that most people intend to change their behaviours (e.g., not take a drug, reduce their dosage, not use alone, etc.) if their drug checking results reveal some unexpected or unknown contents in the drugs they were planning to take. Ms. Valente stressed that although empirical evidence indicates that drug checking is a useful intervention, moving beyond research on behavioural intention will be an important step in establishing the evidence base to support scaling up these services. Dr. Ventura emphasized the value of drug checking in monitoring drug markets and equipping policymakers and health authorities with data to respond to dangerous trends, and noted that Energy Control is responsible for detecting about 65% of new substances to the government. Attendees left the workshop feeling energized and having expanded their international networks and knowledge on drug checking.

    A concurrent panel session titled “Drug Checking: From Dance Clubs to the Dark Web” kept a focus on drug checking on May 15, 2017 and gave conference delegates a chance to learn about the evaluations of innovative drug checking programs. Dr. Mark Lysyshyn presented an important example from Vancouver – one of the cities across Canada experiencing a major opioid overdose crisis – where clients of a supervised injection facility (SIF), Insite, were offered test strips to check their drugs for fentanyl. Dr. Lysyshyn’s research found that offering fentanyl drug checking allowed clients to use the results to reduce harm through dose reduction and thereby decrease their risk of overdose, suggesting that drug checking could be a useful intervention to prevent overdose fatalities, including among people who use drugs accessing a SIF. The presenters also participated in a press conference earlier that day during which journalists were given the opportunity to ask targeted questions about their drug checking research. Julie-Soleil Meeson, a member of the Canadian National Working Group on Drug Checking, also made remarks at the press conference on the various efforts taking place across Canada to implement drug checking.

    Beyond disseminating information on drug checking research, HR17 was also a likely diffusion point for fentanyl test strips, with some conference delegates bringing these back to their agencies in Canada and abroad. Although no results were collected, word of mouth indicated a noticeable amount of results from test strips were positive for the presence of fentanyl.

    We hope the emphasis on drug checking at HR17 not only created a space to learn and share, but also inspired a continuation of efforts to create harm reduction strategies that meet the diverse needs of people who use drugs .

    Written by: Tara Marie Watson, Caleb Chepesiuk, and Nazlee Maghsoudi, Members of Canadian National Working Group on Drug Checking

  • insite vigil poem by the late Bud Osborn

    insite vigil poem by the late Bud Osborn

    Last week, for the National Day of Action for the Overdose Crisis, we marched with 922 feathers, one for every life lost in BC in 2016. Our Executive Director, Donald MacPherson, vividly recalls being in the same place 20 years before for the same reason at Oppenheimer park with 1,000 crosses and his friend Bud Osborn.

    Two weeks ago, we hosted an event, convening those from across Canada actively working on establishing supervised consumption services in their communities. The event was opened with a poem. When the poem was read, it stirred a committed sense of determination in the room, fuelled by the shared and extended duration of suffering from the loss of so many lives to accidental drug overdoses.

    The poem was written by the late Bud Osborn, who passed away in 2014.

    the fight for insite

    began in a political/rhetorical atmosphere

    of depraved indifference

    regarding overdose deaths and pandemic emergency

    horrifying ghosts of human beings

    calling radio talk shows and actually telling me:

    “why don’t they just string barbed-wire

    around the downtown eastside

    and let them infect each other to death?”

    or

    “the only good junkie is a dead junkie”

    comments like those heard in nazi germany

    I remember one welfare week

    eleven years ago

    sirens screamed lights flashed red and white

    all day all night

    one hot afternoon that same week

    I met a friend of mine

    on the corner of cordova and main

    she’s a first nations woman and activist

    who told me when i asked

    how she was

    that her family was gathering

    to make another crucial decision

    her cousin had fixed alone Wednesday evening

    in a sro room

    and when her husband returned

    found her dead on the floor

    he made a noose

    with a long piece of cloth   hanged himself

    and soon was dead

    and because the couple had an infant son

    the family was gathering

    to determine the best disposition

    for the suddenly orphaned child

    and this entire unjust and tragic situation

    might well never have happened

    if insite was open

    but as my friend and I were saying goodbye

    a flame burst inside me

    fuelled by grief and rage

    like a fierce spontaneous combustion

    flashing up through my nervous system

    and roared in my head like a psychic explosion

    because of another

    because of too many

    because of an unnecessary

    overdose death

    yelled

    two words repetitively in my head

    no more! no more! no more!

    of this heart-breaking family-shattering community-diminishing

    pain     of overdose deaths

    I immediately ran from that conversation

    to see mark and liz and kirsten at the old portland hotel

    and with dave diewert ann livingston

    and several others

    planned a day of action

    we pounded 1,000 crosses into oppenheimer park

    blocked main and hastings with a heavy chain

    and distributed statistics of misery

    to commuters unable to get to work

    1,000 crosses memorializing just three years of overdose deaths

    a cross is a symbol of political execution

    a cross is a symbol for social revolution

    and form that afternoon

    the battle to save lives was declared

    the battle to save the lives of those

    so many other wanted to die

    and from that afternoon

    to insite’s opening

    we’ve never ceased in our efforts

    to save lives and bring peace

    because everyone     suffers

    when compassion is undone

    insite vigil poem by the late Bud Osborn
    an excerpt from the book Raise Shit! Social Action Saving Lives
    co-authored by Donald MacPherson, Susan Boyd and Bud Osborn

    Bus Osborn Portrait
  • In Memory of Raffi Balian

    In Memory of Raffi Balian

    Raffi Balian passed away on February 16, 2017

    Raffi was one of the founding members of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition (CDPC). He was very excited that the founding group was starting an organization that was national in scope and was prepared to advocate strongly for harm reduction, decriminalization of drugs and ultimately regulation.

    Raffi always brought such a depth of knowledge to our discussions gained from his own experience and his work over the years with people who used drugs. He clearly understood what it was like to live in the shadows, in a world where the substances that one was using were criminalized and stigmatized. He was always one of the first to identify what the unintended consequences and harms of drug policies would be on the people on the ground. He was a member of the CDPC policy committee and was so appreciative of a place where people came together to talk about drug policies and their impact on people who used drugs. Raffi brought his deep knowledge and commitment to many consultations over the years, often articulating perspectives that opened up new ideas for health authorities to consider when designing harm reduction programs.

    Raffi was a significant figure in the landscape of Canadian drug policy and he will be sorely missed by all of us.

    -Donald MacPherson

    The family has requested that any donations be made in Raffi’s memory to the Raffi Balian Fund, to further the work he began in Harm Reduction. The donation website via Canada Help’s can be accessed here or in-person/by mail c/o Rose Shang 955 Queen St E Toronto, ON M4M3P3.

     

    Raffi Balian Memorial February 2017

  • How to Help the Overdose Crisis

    How to Help the Overdose Crisis

    As 2016 comes to a close, we reflect on the tragedy that continues to unfold in Canada; the unprecedented numbers of deaths from drug overdoses this year. At CDPC, we are taking a moment with you, our supporters, to acknowledge the devastating impact that this is having on families and communities across the country. We are grieving with those of you who have lost loved ones. And we acknowledge that this tragedy will have a lasting effect on all of us. We want to remember those vital members of our communities who will not see 2017.

    As we move into 2017, we encourage you to get involved in your community to help turn this situation around. Because it is hard to know how to help, below are actions we encourage.

    Ways to help:

    • Reach out to your local governments and health authorities; demand to see how they are working together with the community on overdose prevention and response plans;
    • Donate time, dollars, materials, and other types of support to your local harm reduction organizations at the street level;
    • Advocate for the immediate access to regulated opioids for people who use drugs – the illegal market is toxic;
    • Advocate for the immediate and robust expansion of opioid assisted treatment programs such as heroin assisted treatment, access to hydromorphone, suboxone and methadone treatment;
    • Write your MP calling for the decriminalization of people who use drugs and the regulation of all illegal drugs to end the illegal market once and for all.

    There are many organizations across the country working day and night to end this nightmare. You can help by supporting their efforts. We have listed a few of them below.

    Edmonton – Streetworks 

    Victoria – Yes to Supervised Consumption Services

    Vancouver – Overdose Prevention Society 

    Vancouver – PHS Community Services Society

    If you wish to support the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition and our efforts to develop new policy options for drugs in Canada you can donate here.

    Please support your local harm reduction projects and first responders’ efforts to keep people safe, alive and looking forward to a chance to change in 2017.

    We realize that systemic changes need to be made to ensure this never happens again, that our drug policies need to protect us better, but at this moment in 2016, we want to honour those on the front lines fighting to save lives in our communities.

    For first responders – we take our hats off to you. Whether you’re a member of an organization of people who use drugs across the country who are on the front lines of harm reduction, a family member devastated by loss but vigorously advocating for changes to our health responses and drug policies, a volunteer in a local harm reduction program or pop-up safe consumption site in a back alley, an overworked para-medic, fire fighter, or police officer on the streets responding to the overwhelming volume of emergency calls, a nurse or doctor attempting to save a life in an emergency ward or one of thousands of people working in front line services across the country struggling to keep up, we thank you for your tireless efforts.

    For everyone working to improve Canada’s approach to drugs, we thank you for your work this year. The forward movement that we have seen in 2016 has been overshadowed by the disaster unfolding in many of our communities as people succumb to overdose in unheard of numbers. If we are not working together yet, we invite you to be in touch. We need to come together now more than ever.

  • World AIDS Day 2016 – Three Papers To Read

    World AIDS Day 2016 – Three Papers To Read

    World AIDS Day 2016 is on December 1st.

    View three important publications relating HIV/AIDS to harm reduction and drug policy. We will continue to work towards the equitable, safe and dignified treatment of people who use drugs – human rights is for everybody.

    1. Drug Policy and Harm Reduction

    Policy brief from the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition and the HIV/AIDS Legal Network

    Drug Policy and Harm Reduction – English

    Politiques sure les drogues er réduction des méfaits – Français

     

    2. Word AIDS Day: Letter to Canada’s Members of Parliament and Senators

    Read the HIV/AIDS Legal Network letter to Canada’s Members of Parliament and Senators  on the role they can play in strengthening Canada’s response to HIV.

    “In the past year, the federal government has taken some important steps in promoting the health and human rights of people living with and affected by HIV. […] But so much more is needed.”

     

    3. “Nothing About Us Without Us” Greater, Meaningful Involvement of People Who Use Illegal Drugs: A Public Health, Ethical, and Human Rights Imperative

    Published in 2008, this report remains relevant today. Brought to you by Open Society Institute Public Health Program, the HIV/AIDS Legal Network and International AIV/AIDS Alliance.

    Read the full report – PDF

     

    Download World AIDS Day 2016 Poster
    World AIDS Day 2016 Poster

  • We’ve Been Here Before – Overdose Deaths in BC, 1994

    We’ve Been Here Before – Overdose Deaths in BC, 1994

    Former BC Chief Coroner Vince Cain, in his report on British Colombia’s opioid overdose catastrophe in the nineties, conducted a thorough analysis of the problem we were facing then. Among other things he was very clear that the overdose problem needed public health and social responses, not criminal justice responses and that drug policies needed to be reviewed. He even called for a commission to do the work. Twenty-two years later we are still waiting for that review. Read his report and weep. Weep for the lives lost to the continuing failure to radically change our approach to drugs in this country. We must stop criminalizing people who use drugs and work towards regulating all psychoactive substances in the name of consumer protection. To do otherwise is clearly to repeat the disasters of the past.

    Here is his prescient report released in 1994 that called for decriminalization and clinical prescribing of heroin so help stem the overdose crisis.

    Excerpt:

    “By far the most controversial part of the report will be Chapter VIII, on Legalization and Decriminalization. Legalization is a huge issue which, while the drug problem is largely here, does not have a unique British Columbian solution. It is bigger than Canada, indeed bigger than North America. It is international in scope and in law. Canadian laws and United Nations conventions control this matter, but that ought not detract from the reality of the situation in British Columbia. We have the problem, and we must do what we can about it, now. Consequently, I am recommending the establishment of a commission to examine and challenge those legal aspects of the problem, amongst so many other things. The problem must be looked at with regard to not only the aspect of deaths form heroin and cocaine, but rather the entire smorgasbord of available illicit narcotics, both so-called “soft” and “hard” drugs.

    Simultaneously, I am recommending the decriminalization of simple possession of specific “soft and “hard” drugs, the specificity to be left to the experts on that commission. We have a serious problem and I submit that those directly affected ought to be dealt with through a medical model, not a criminal model, even to the point where I am suggesting the possibility of providing heroin to seriously addicted people, in a para-medical model. One material reason for this would be to reduce the demand from the street trafficker, replacing it through the clinic, not unlike the current situation with methadone.”
    Page VI – Report of the Task Force into Illicit and Narcotic Overdose Deaths in British Columbia – Office of the Chief of Coroner

    Download Cain’s Report, 1994

    (seulement en anglais)

    Cain, 1994 Report Submission

  • The Canadian Drug Policy Coalition on Cannabis Regulation

    The Canadian Drug Policy Coalition on Cannabis Regulation

    Canada is at a turning point in terms of cannabis policy. The Task Force on Marijuana Legalization and Regulation has released its discussion paper for input. The Task Force proposes five elements of a new system for cannabis. I discuss each of these elements from the CDPC’s perspective.

     

    1. Minimizing harms of use

    A public health approach to cannabis policy focuses on principles of social justice, human rights and scientific evidence. It puts health promotion and the prevention of harms at the forefront. Through health promotion, we can enable Canadians to increase control over their health and, ultimately, reduce the health and social harms associated with cannabis use.

    How do we use health promotion to assist Canadians in making healthy choices? There is a great example in British Columbia with a program called iMinds. It is offered in schools to teach young people health literacy when it comes to drug use. They learn the knowledge and skills they need to navigate in a world where drug use, including cannabis, is common.

    Drug literacy is built by engaging Canadians in honest, thoughtful discussions about drug use in order to encourage them to express themselves and think critically about their beliefs, attitudes and behaviours related to drugs. They learn to assess the complex ways in which drugs have an impact on the health and wellbeing of individuals, communities and societies. They learn about the diversity of reasons people use drugs and the social attitudes and norms related to various drugs. They also develop personal and social strategies to manage the risks and harms related to drugs. As we repeal prohibition on cannabis, we need to include such health promotion approaches.

    1. Establishing a Safe and Responsible Production System

    The production of cannabis for personal use needs to be legal. Current legal production of cannabis is for medical purposes only and occurs through a few licensed commercial producers, often big corporations, who can only distribute cannabis through mail order. Licensed producers must adhere to strict manufacturing practices to produce cannabis for medical purposes. Quality control and proper packaging and labelling are of course important, though some argue licensed producers are currently overly regulated.

    It would be easy for existing licensed producers to open up their sales for personal use once Canada regulates cannabis, and I know they are already planning for that to happen. What is less clear is how the smaller producers will be integrated into a regulated market. Like craft beer and wine, there is a growing movement to integrate craft cannabis producers into the regulated market. We support their licensing for commercial purposes.

    For non-commercial, personal use, we also support the home cultivation of a limited number of plants, with access to municipal inspections to meet building codes and standards.

    1. Designing an Appropriate Distribution System

    Store fronts for the sale of cannabis for personal use have been a source of tension in Canada over the last few years. Almost 20 years ago, a social movement emerged in Canada to provide access to cannabis for medical purposes through medical cannabis dispensaries or compassion clubs. Founders of these dispensaries did so to ensure people had safer, more controlled options to cannabis. These dispensaries remain in legal limbo despite the fact that courts have recognized that they provide a valuable service. In 2002, the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs recommended that medical cannabis dispensaries be integrated into the federal medical cannabis program. The supply of a legal source of cannabis for medical purposes through licensed producers has worked for many but has not succeeded in meeting the varied needs of all of those who use it for medical purposes.

    We now find ourselves with a proliferation of cannabis dispensaries that may or may not be strictly dispensing cannabis for medical purposes. In my opinion, this situation speaks to the fact that cannabis is widely used and Canadians want access to it for personal use.

    It is clear that we need to integrate retail sales outlets into how we move forward with cannabis regulation.

    1. Enforcing Public Safety and Protection

    Cannabis is unique and we need to keep these unique characteristics in mind as we develop cannabis policy. Cannabis is a plant that is widely used for personal use, medical or otherwise. It has a wide range of therapeutic effects. It is exceptionally safe, in that there is no lethal dose of cannabis, unlike almost any other product on the market, even table salt. That is useful information to have under a public health approach to cannabis that focuses on health promotion and reducing harms.

    That said, cannabis is a psychoactive substance and we need to approach it responsibly and respectfully. We need to address the complexity of driving under the influence of cannabis. We also need to provide adequate services to those who struggle with problematic cannabis use.

    Now the human rights aspect of a public health approach to cannabis strives to deal with cannabis in a way that does not harm others. Under prohibition, people who use cannabis have been criminalized and incarcerated, stigmatized and discriminated against. Some more than others. Many agree that prohibition has done more harm than cannabis use.

    As Canada prepares to regulate cannabis for personal use, we urge the government of Canada to immediately stop arresting Canadians for possession of cannabis.

    1. Accessing Cannabis for Medical Purposes

    As we move forward with the regulation of cannabis, let’s not forget about the needs of people who use cannabis for medical purposes.

    I was recently part of a coalition of health charities and patient groups that issued recommendations to keep in mind to meet patients’ needs for medical purposes as we develop cannabis regulation.

    Canada needs to invest in research on cannabis for therapeutic purposes to expand the evidence base. I refer you to research priorities we recently identified at a medical cannabis research roundtable of key cannabis researchers, health charities and patient groups.

    Canadians with various health conditions and states of mobility want access to a variety of products in various forms and in a range of potencies, through a variety of distribution options. There is a need for onsite dispensing through pharmacies and dispensaries. Mail order through licensed producers remains a good option, especially for those in rural and remote areas and those who have limited mobility. Self-production of a few plants for personal, non-commercial use, perhaps even collective gardens, must also be allowed.

    These thoughts are the CDPC’s contribution to this important conversation. I welcome your input.

    ______________________________________________

    Lynne Belle-Isle, PhD, is Co-founder and Chair of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition. She is a National Programs Manager with the Canadian AIDS Society and a Research Affiliate of the Centre for Addictions Research of BC. Her health services research focuses on access to cannabis for medical purposes. She testified as an expert witness in R. v. Beren. Her ongoing collaborative work has been used in various court cases challenging the constitutionality of the Marihuana Medical Access Regulations.