April 25, 2025

Injecting Hope: A Harm Reduction Program Tackling Drug Overdose

Injecting Hope is an on-the-ground, gritty exploration of the drug overdose crisis in North America and the role harm reduction efforts, like safe injection sites, could play in finding a solution. ABC7 News reporter Tara Campbell takes viewers onto the streets of Vancouver, Canada’s Downtown Eastside for an intimate look at how the first safe consumption site in North America, established more than two decades ago, is impacting drug users and the community at large.
April 25, 2025

The Story Behind: Fentanyl (3 Part Series)

This three-part series presented by RogersTV explores how the opioid and fentanyl crisis is affecting people in various cities in Ontario, Canada. The first video is largely focused on providing background information on what fentanyl is and how this dangerous drug has creeped into communities. One police officer talks about how “the misuse and abuse of fentanyl is a shared responsibility – it’s a public health situation that includes education, intervention, treatment, and enforcement.”
April 24, 2025

Inside Canada’s Fentanyl Overdose Epidemic

SBS Dateline (Australia) wants to know what they can learn from the Canadian opioid crisis and the fatality of fentanyl, and use it as a warning for Australians. This news investigation discusses (1) why fentanyl kills so many young Canadians, (2) how it first came to Canada, (3) the importance of harm reduction services like supervised consumption sites, and (4) programs and support services in place to help people in several different ways.
April 24, 2025

Painkiller: Inside the Opioid Crisis in Canada

Nominated for Canadian Screen Award, this documentary covers the opioid crisis in Canada. “It features interviews with families who have lost loved ones, as well as healthcare workers and policy experts who question a health system that favors corporate profits over patients.” For example, they talk about the overprescribing of prescription medications, and how little to no punishments have been handed out. This documentary also advocates for harm reduction as a crucial way to combat this crisis.
April 24, 2025

Fentanyl: The Drug Deadlier than Heroin (VICE)

In 2015, close to 300 people died from fentanyl in Alberta. Many of these deaths were caused by bootlet, non-pharmaceutical pills. VICE presents an immersive and personal feature film about the fentanyl crisis in Canada, told from the perspective of a community of drug users. The struggles of one young man in this documentary is particularily important. He is an active drug user who continually attempts to seek support. In one scene, he goes to a publicly funded treatment center, expressing his urgent desire for help. However, he is told he cannot begin the program until he is sober for 5 days – he must find the ‘willpower’ to go through withdrawal, despite being homeless and alone. Later on in the video, he tries to find help again, but he is told the waitlist is going to be a few months. One of the last things he says is, “Honestly, if I can’t get clean at this point, I think I’ll just kill myself. I can’t do this any more.” His story is a very realistic depiction of how hard it is to receive help and is a testament to the fact that people struggling with addiction need support immediately, because many often shy away once told they must wait.
April 24, 2025

Overdose Crisis on the US-Canada Border: Steel Town Down

Tens of thousands have died of an opioid overdose across the US and Canada in 2017, with the death count surpassing the peak of the AIDS epidemic. The weight of the crisis in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario falls on a handful of people struggling to keep their fellow community members alive, similar to countless towns in North America. Steel Town Down is an intimate portrait of the only harm reduction worker in town and a family desperate to save their son from becoming another victim of the crisis.
April 24, 2025

Flood: The Overdose Epidemic in Canada

This documentary travels across Canada to discuss the magnitude of the opioid crisis / overdose epidemic and the importance of harm reduction initiatives across communities. You’ll learn about what harm reduction entails and why it is essential to combating this crisis because “since 2016, more than 12,800 Canadians lost their lives due to fatal overdoses.”
April 23, 2025

Beating Alcohol Addiction Through Evidence-Based Treatment

This documentary follows Mike Pond, a therapist managing his alcohol addiction. He was only ever offered one treatment after losing his practice, his house, his family, and becoming homeless: Alcoholics Anonymous. This abstinence-based treatment approach did not work for him, so he started looking for other ways to heal himself and others. Mike is an advocate for “compassionate, evidence-based treatments” and feels that “harm reduction, or any positive change, offers clients the best chance of beating addictions.”
April 20, 2025

Smashed: Breaking the Cycle of Alcohol Use Disorder

“Dr. Jeff Harries, the founder of the Canadian Alcohol Use Disorder Society, has been working to ensure that AUD be understand and treated as a medical condition.” He strongly believes that “people suffering from this disease should not be shamed or marginalized. His 20 years of experience in prescribing effective medications and spreading awareness of a more effective, compassionate approach has helped thousands of people to recover and heal.” Unfortunately, his work was derailed when he was diagnosed with ALS in 2018. He passed in 2021.