Grant: Doctoral: Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships

Dr. Bernadette Pauly, University of Victoria. Compassion and buyers' clubs have existed in Canada since the 1980s. They have predominantly been used to provide medications and treatments not easily accessed through traditional ways to their members who often had Hepatitis C or AIDS. Today, they are appearing as a way to respond to the drug toxicity crisis by providing members of the club with drugs that have been tested to ensure they are the expected product, making them safer than drugs bought from the unregulated and adulterated toxic street supply. This is a non-prescribed safer supply model. More than 36,000 people have died due to drug toxicity since 2016, and we need the expertise of people who use drugs to lead the response. Through connection with an advisory committee of people who use drugs, I will conduct a case study to understand the facilitators, barriers, and outcomes of local community-led, non-prescribed safer supply models. I will use techniques such as interviewing, observation, policy and procedure analysis, and historical document and artifact analysis to inform a comprehensive analysis of the gaps such programs fill as well as the facilitators, barriers, and outcomes of such approaches. This research will provide an example of a model of safer supply that does not require having a formal opioid use disorder diagnosis or require a prescription from a doctor to receive the medication or drug. The results will contribute to health care by providing an understanding of the needs of people who use drugs, a model that is responsive during a drug toxicity crisis, ideas for how to create new programs, and a contribution to the public conversation about safer supply. This study is important for people who use drugs, service providers, service leaders, policy makers, and all people living on Turtle Island since the devastating impacts of the drug toxicity crisis are so far-reaching.