ArticleCanadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique2025
Safer Opioid Supply programs: Hydromorphone prescribing in Ontario as a harm reduction intervention to combat the drug poisoning crisis.
Article in Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Safer supply deprescribing during a toxic drug poisoning crisis in Vancouver, Canada.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2026Article
- "Safer supply is the thing that changes everything": the role of prescribed safer supply in rebuilding trust following experiences of medical abandonment.BMC public health · 2026Article
- A continuum of disconnection: the impacts of safer supply program closures on continuity of care, transition, and total loss of service access.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- Safe Supply at Insite, North America's First Supervised Consumption Site: A Case Report of Reduced Harms From the Toxic Drug Supply in a Client Prescribed Powdered Fentanyl Alternative.Drug and alcohol review · 2026Article
- "With this you're not chained down to something": contrasting experiences of opioid agonist treatment and safer supply program participation among people receiving prescribed safer supply.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- Perspectives on prescribed safer supply programs among people who inject drugs in Baltimore, Maryland: A mixed methods study among individuals highly affected by drug toxicity.The International journal on drug policy · 2025Article
- A sea of need: provider accounts of strategies used to manage admission demands to safer opioid supply programs in Ontario.Harm reduction journal · 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
- Comprehensive substance use services within primary care settings: The Safer Opioid Supply program at London InterCommunity Health Centre.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2025Article
- Responding to the toxic drug crisis: Promising innovations, gaps, and calls to action.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
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
settingThe crisis of unregulated fentanyl-related overdose deaths presents a significant public health challenge. This article describes the implementation and evaluation of four Safer Opioid Supply programs (SSPs) in Ontario, one in London and three in Toronto. INTERVENTION AND IMPLEMENTATION: SSPs aim to curtail overdose fatalities while connecting individuals using drugs to healthcare services. The programs involve a daily dispensed prescription of immediate-release hydromorphone tablets for take-home dosing alongside an observed dose of long-acting opioids like slow-release oral morphine. Implemented within a multidisciplinary primary care framework, these programs emphasize patient-centred approaches and comprehensive health and social support. OUTCOMES: In our study conducted in 2020/2021, clients and service providers reported that receiving pharmaceutical opioids through these programs improved the clients' health and well-being. The regulated supply was reported to lead to decreases in overdose incidents, use of unregulated substances, and criminalized activities. Increased engagement with healthcare and harm reduction services and improvements in social determinants of health, such as food security, were also reported. Despite these positive outcomes, some implementation challenges, including capacity issues and provider burnout, were described by service providers. IMPLICATIONS: Our findings suggest that the combination of safer supply, wrap-around support, and harm reduction within primary care settings can lead to increased healthcare engagement, HIV/HCV prevention, testing, and treatment uptake, reducing the burden of infectious diseases and overdose risk. SSPs have the potential to meaningfully reduce overdose rates, address the ongoing overdose crisis, and if scaled up, influence population-level outcomes.
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Registered trials
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