USA. Our Research Shows We Need Compassion Clubs to Stop OD Deaths
USA. Our Research Shows We Need Compassion Clubs to Stop OD Deaths
On March 7, a judicial review began of Health Canada’s 2022 decision to deny the Drug User Liberation Front an exemption to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. This would have allowed DULF to operate a compassion club, distributing tested drugs at cost to participants in order to reduce their exposure to the adulterated street supply of unregulated drugs.
As researchers with Imagine Safe Supply, a community-driven academic exploration of safe supply experiences among people who use drugs across Canada, our findings point to significant barriers in prescribed safe supply programs, and a clear need for low-barrier programs like DULF’s. Relying exclusively on medical prescriptions for safe supply will not be sufficient to tackle the crisis of deaths involving unregulated drugs. We need compassion clubs to save lives. (Filter, USA, 11.03.2024)