By Alexandra Mehl With the toxic drug crisis as the leading cause of death for British Columbians aged 10 though 59, nearly 170 youth, aged 18 and under, have lost their lives since 2017. According to experts, not enough research and monitoring has been done to assess the impacts of the crisis on young people, who also face barriers when accessing harm reduction services. “Young people do use drugs,” said Kora DeBeck, an associate professor at Simon Fraser University’s School of Public Policy, n

“For young people, [they] often don’t have access to harm reduction services to the extent that older people have,” said DeBeck. “A lot of it is a reluctance to give them access to evidence-based harm reduction programs, I think out of fear that they might encourage substance use among young people or somehow send the wrong message.”

“The impact is that young people aren’t given the protections that those evidence-based interventions can provide,” added DeBeck.