ArticleJournal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine2021
"It's Helped Me a Lot, Just Like to Stay Alive": a Qualitative Analysis of Outcomes of a Novel Hydromorphone Tablet Distribution Program in Vancouver, Canada.
Article in Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Safer opioid supply clients' values and preferences: a systematic review and thematic synthesis of qualitative research.BMJ mental health · 2025Pooled it
- "Anybody who Looks at This Program and Doesn't See the Positive Side from it Doesn't Fully Understand": Participant Perspectives on an Injectable Opioid Agonist Treatment Program in New Brunswick, Canada.Contemporary drug problems · 2026Article
- Prescribed pharmaceutical alternatives initiative coinciding with reductions in unregulated street opioid use among young people who use drugs: An interrupted time series analysis.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Article
- Attitudes to Drug Policy in Australia, 2001-2022/23: What Does This Mean for Drug Policy Reform in Australia?Drug and alcohol review · 2026Article
- Harm reduction vending machines as safer supply-supporting infrastructure.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- A sea of need: provider accounts of strategies used to manage admission demands to safer opioid supply programs in Ontario.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- A qualitative study exploring motives for the transition from injecting to smoking drugs in Vancouver, British Columbia.The International journal on drug policy · 2025Article
- "From an HCV and HIV point of view, it's been remarkable": A qualitative study about using prescribed safer supply to support people who use drugs along the HIV and HCV prevention and treatment cascades in Ontario, Canada.Journal of the International AIDS Society · 2025Article
- Clinicians' Perspectives and an Ethical Analysis of Safer Supply Opioid Prescribing.Journal of bioethical inquiry · 2025Article
- Barriers and facilitators to injectable opioid agonist treatment engagement within a structural vulnerability context: a qualitative study of patient experiences in Vancouver, Canada.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Safer Opioid Supply programs: Hydromorphone prescribing in Ontario as a harm reduction intervention to combat the drug poisoning crisis.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2025Article
- Opioid medication doses among safer supply clients: Current safer supply doses and previous OAT experience.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2025Article
- Reimagining subjectivities in place: Necropolitical logics of safer supply and housing in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2025Article
- Barriers and facilitators to safer supply pilot program implementation in Canada: a qualitative assessment of service provider perspectives.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Perceived impacts of North Americas first de-medicalized safer supply program.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2025Article
- A Preliminary Assessment of Short-Term Social and Substance Use-Related Outcomes Among Clients of Integrated Safer Opioid Supply Pilot Programs in Toronto, Canada.International journal of mental health and addiction · 2025Article
- Early experiences and impacts of a fentanyl powder safer supply program in Vancouver, Canada: a qualitative study.The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse · 2025Article
- "They talk about it like it's an overdose crisis when in fact it's basically genocide": The experiences of Indigenous peoples who use illicit drugs in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside neighbourhood.The International journal on drug policy · 2024Article
- "Before medically advised" departure from hospital and subsequent drug overdose: a population-based cohort study.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2024Article
- "Everybody looks at it as drug use instead of pain management": Experiences of chronic pain and its management among older people living with HIV who use drugs in Vancouver, British Columbia.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
North America is experiencing an overdose crisis driven by fentanyl, related analogues, and fentanyl-adulterated drugs. In response, there have been increased calls for "safe supply" interventions based on the premise that providing a safer alternative (i.e., pharmaceutical drugs of known quality/quantity, non-adulterated, with user agency in consumption methods) to the street drug supply will limit people's use of fentanyl-adulterated drugs and reduce overdose events. This study examined outcomes of a hydromorphone tablet distribution program intended to prevent overdose events among people who use drugs (PWUD) at high risk of fatal overdose. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 42 people enrolled in the hydromorphone distribution program. Additionally, over 100 h of ethnographic observation were undertaken in and around the study site. Transcripts were coded using NVivo and based on categories extracted from the interview guides and those identified during initial interviews and ethnographic fieldwork. Analysis focused on narratives around experiences with the program, focusing on program-related outcomes. Our analysis identified the following positive outcomes of being enrolled in the hydromorphone tablet distribution program: (1) reduced street drug use and overdose risk, (2) improvements to health and well-being, (3) improvements in co-management of pain, and (4) economic improvements. Our findings indicate that the hydromorphone distribution program not only is effective in responding to the current overdose crisis by reducing people's use of illicit drugs but also addresses inequities stemming from the intersection of drug use and social inequality. Safe supply programs should be further implemented and evaluated in both urban and rural setting across North America as a strategy to reduce exposure to the toxic drug supply and fatal overdose.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.