Methamphetamine use is on the rise, worsening Canada’s already complex opioid crisis

published on May 23, 2023 by Wency Leung in Globe and Mail

Like others working on the front lines of Canada’s toxic drug crisis, Paxton Bach is seeing a troubling shift in patterns of illicit drug use.

Over the past decade, Dr. Bach, an internal medicine and addiction medicine specialist at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver and co-medical director at the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, has noticed the use of methamphetamine skyrocket, adding another layer of complexity to the opioids epidemic.

Many people who wind up in hospital emergency departments are there with a combination of unregulated amphetamines, including methamphetamine, and opioids in their system, and deaths often involve more than one drug.

“We have a tendency to view every substance independently from one another,” Dr. Bach said. “It’s important to recognize that these are not independent phenomenon.”…