"In 2006, the Vancouver Police Department (VPD), the police force within the city of Vancouver in British Columbia (BC), Canada, formalized its drug policy and endorsed harm reduction as a core pillar of its strategy, alongside prevention, treatment, and law enforcement [5].
"Oregon and Washington have recently made changes to their drug laws to fully or partially legalize possession of small amounts of drugs and increase investment in treatment access. To our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the association between those changes and fatal drug overdose.
"Regarding the potential for inconsistent application and enforcement of the 2.5g threshold, participants suggested that smaller, Northern, or isolated communities could be particularly vulnerable to police use of discretion, which could result in important jurisdictional disparities. For instance, many participants believed that police in rural and remote settings were more likely to criminalize and discriminate against people who use drugs.
"Our study also underscores the importance of recognizing the long history of uncertainty, punitive actions, and negative experiences with police among people who use drugs. Decriminalization in BC and implementation among police has important implications regarding building trust between people who use drugs, the community, and law enforcement. While there is the potential to reduce stigmatization and criminalization against people who use drugs, the discretionary power of law enforcement will play a large role in achieving these outcomes.
"The study’s findings emphasize that although some participants expect decriminalization to result in positive outcomes and felt as though the 2.5g threshold was appropriate, the majority of participants foresaw a number of significant limitations due to the defined threshold quantity. Our findings offer insights into what those limitations are.
"In the Seattle area, the increase in methamphetamine use has paralleled an increase in methamphetamine-involved deaths, many of which also involved opioids.35 Although we did not find that people who primarily use goofball were more likely than others to experience an opioid overdose or stimulant overdose/overamp, several behaviors associated with overdose were higher in this group including more frequent injection and injecting alone.
"Findings from these recent surveys of SSP clients in Seattle showed that goofball use is common, with over half of respondents reporting using heroin and methamphetamine together. Moreover, PWID whose main drug was goofball reported considerable health risks and morbidity, including more frequent injection, femoral and jugular vein injection, public injection, abscesses and skin infections, infected blood clots and blood infections, and endocarditis. They also reported more overdose-related risk including injecting alone and witnessing both opioid and stimulant overdoses.
"Methamphetamine use is increasing in the wake of the opioid crisis in the United States (U.S.).
