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Dr. Elaine Hyshka, assistant professor at the University of Alberta School of Public Health, joins Dave Cournoyer to discuss supervised consumption clinics in Alberta and the flaws in the United Conservative Party government’s recent review of the facilities on the latest episode of the Daveberta Podcast.
Elaine shares her insights into the history of harm reduction and recovery efforts in Alberta, how these programs help Albertans, and what the future of supervised consumption clinics might be in Alberta.
The Daveberta Podcast is a member of the Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB. The Alberta Podcast Network includes more than 30 great made-in-Alberta podcasts.
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Recommended reading/listening:
- A socio-economic review of supervised consumption sites in Alberta (Government of Alberta, March 2020)
- Opioid Emergency Response Commission Recommendations to the Minister (Government of Alberta, July 2018)
- Academics question methodology of UCP-approved supervised consumption sites report (Postmedia, March 8, 2020)
- ‘Finally our truth has been heard’: Edmonton’s Chinatown community welcomes consumption site review (Postmedia, March 8, 2020)
- Review incorrectly implied consumption site caused neighbourhood ranking to drop, magazine says (CBC, March 7, 2020)
- Coronavirus discovered in Alberta just as politics trumps science in supervised drug clinic report (AlbertaPolitics.ca, March 6, 2020)
- Keith Gerein: Social disorder better solved with housing investments than discrediting consumption sites (Postmedia, March 6, 2020)
- Doctors dispute claims of Alberta’s supervised consumption panel member (Postmedia, March 6, 2020)
- ‘A system of chaos’: Supervised Consumption Services Review Committee releases findings (CBC, March 5, 2020)
- UCP government shifts focus of Alberta’s addictions treatment to recovery (Globe & Mail, March 3, 2020)
-
Ben Perrin: I used to believe safe drug sites were bad, but I was wrong (Postmedia, January 27, 2020)
One reply on “Episode 50: Supervised Consumption Services in Alberta with Dr. Elaine Hyshka”
The real reason for the government’s lukewarm support for SCS is simple: they don’t accept the reality that addiction is a disease. They see it as a moral failing, and safe consumption services as enabling illegal activity.
Never mind that some substances — for instance, ethanol, tobacco, sleeping pills, etc. — have been abused equally by conservatives, liberals, and social democrats throughout the history of Western culture; these inveterate social conservatives think that the mere fact that drugs of abuse like heroin are illegal makes them also a sin.
Sadly, morality — whether supportable or misguided — is not easily swayed by anything so secular as “evidence”, so don’t expect it to be easy to convince these troglodytes of the righteousness of harm reduction.