Harm reduction is often misunderstood.
Harm reduction services are evidence-based programs designed to reduce the harms associated with the unregulated drug supply with a focus on ‘meeting people where they are at’ (13,14). It’s a compassionate attempt at helping vulnerable members of our society be safer.
Because everyone deserves care and safety, no matter what their life circumstances are.
This post was made in collaboration with @camhnews.
Sources
- Canada’s Response to the Dual Public Health Crises: A Cautionary Tale | The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry | February 2021
- Canada’s overdose crisis and the toxic illegal drug supply | Government of Canada
- Understanding how the unregulated opioid supply impacts the drug poisoning crisis in Ontario | CAMH | 2023
- Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, S.C. 1996, c. 19 | Government of Canada
- What makes Canada’s illegal drug supply dangerous? | CATIE | February 2025
- Key findings: Opioid- and Stimulant-related Harms in Canada | Government of Canada | Last updated March 2026
- Characteristics of Substance-Related Toxicity Deaths in Ontario | ODPRN – Public Health Ontario | 2023
- The increase in benzodiazepine-laced drugs and related risks in Canada: The urgent need for effective and sustainable solutions | International Journal of Drug Policy | January 2023
- Medetomidine in Canada’s unregulated drug supply | CATIE | May 2026
- Policy & Advocacy Work | National Harm Reduction Coalition
- Harm Reduction | Alliance for Healthier Communities
- Addiction | CAMH
- Harm Reduction Principles | National Harm Reduction Coalition
- Harm Reduction Resources | CAMH
- Harm Reduction | Canadian Drug Policy Coalition
- Harm Reduction Interventions to Prevent Overdose Deaths | Canadian Journal of Health Technologies | August 2021
- Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy: Substance use services and supports | Government of Canada
- Primary Prevention of Harms Related to Substance Use: Promising Practices | CAMH | June 2025
- Client experiences using a new supervised consumption service in Sudbury, Ontario: A qualitative study | PLOS One | October 2023
- What is Toronto’s Drug Checking Service? | Toronto’s Drug Checking Service
- ‘I won’t make it without this program’: the impact of safer opioid supply program closures in Ontario | Research Gate | September 2025
- Overdose mortality incidence and supervised consumption services in Toronto, Canada: an ecological study and spatial analysis | The Lancet Public Health | February 2024
- Take-home naloxone programs for suspected opioid overdose in community settings: a scoping umbrella review | BMC Public Health | March 2021
- Assessing service and treatment needs and barriers of youth who use illicit and non-medical prescription drugs in Northern Ontario, Canada | PLOS One | December 2019
- Evaluating the effects of Toronto’s supervised consumption sites on local crime | medRxiv – A preprint server | May 2025
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