Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Euan Thomson Profile picture
Euan Thomson
@elsthomson
Sep 18, 2024 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
SCOOP 🧵
Premier Smith's office contacted the University of Calgary President's office six hours before the Calgary Police riot squad arrived on campus on May 9.

Beyond that, footage and correspondence remains hidden behind a wall of secrecy. 1/
drugdatadecoded.ca/albertas-fiefd… I have attempted to obtain info on the May 9 police violence via every channel: ASIRT, CPS, UCalgary & Executive Council.

The FOIP system is so broken, I can't get footage of my own battering by police or of the planning that led to it. 2/
drugdatadecoded.ca/albertas-fiefd…
Aug 29, 2024 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
🧵Latest drug toxicity mortality data are up.

As expected, initial report of 95 dead in Apr increased >10%. Last 12mo show 10-15% ⬆️ over initial reports; updates ongoing to Jan 2022.

May 2024 [currently] shows 73 dead from unregulated drugs. 💜 to all who have lost people. 1/ Table showing updates from drug toxicity deaths from initial reports Still critical to report that deaths are primarily a function of drug supply toxicity.

There is *no evidence* to suggest bed-based treatment – the AB model in a nutshell – reduces death.

Below: link b/w deaths and % of YYC consumption site visits ending in overdose response. 2/ Image
Aug 22, 2024 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
🧵 Back in 2021, advocates in Alberta raised a stink about the UCP's plan to force supervised consumption site users to provide their personal health number on visits.

Site users had a "fear of incrimination or stigma if visits are recorded" — correctly, given, um, history. 1/ The government backed off, for a while and to an extent, anyway. But they were cooking up something better.

My Recovery Plan would gather up information from anyone accessing substance use services in Alberta, starting with bed-based recovery facilities. 2/
Aug 21, 2024 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
SCOOP: Last Door Recovery Society was handed control of patient data from all publicly funded recovery facilities in Alberta by an agreement w/ the govt & Alberta Health Services, prompting violations of informed consent & questionable handling of patient data privacy. 🧵 1/ Map of western Canada showing Alberta singled out with diverse individuals celebrating against a yellow background. The agreement was launched via nearly $2 million in sole-source govt contracts for Last Door's My Recovery Plan app, 2021-23.

The app measures personal recovery indicators at the start & end of a bed-based program using personal health info, incl. active drug use. 2/
Apr 2, 2024 • 33 tweets • 6 min read
Live tweeting the Alberta government announcement: 🧵
Danielle Smith just made a wide-reaching statement showing declines alcohol, benzodiazepine, pharmaceutical opioid and methamphetamine deaths from 2021 to 2023.
Around 90% of overdose deaths are non-pharmaceutical opioids. 2/
Jan 18, 2024 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
🧵Couple thoughts about yesterday's announcement by the UCP and what it means for Edmonton and Alberta more broadly.

1. This is not a compassionate pivot, it is a crackdown jointly orchestrated by Edmonton Police and the UCP. It is a consolidation of power. 1/ 2. The crackdown will play out as zero tolerance for tents.

But where will people go?

The options are remand, prison, 'addiction treatment,' unsafe shelters, or deeper into the alleyways, parks and laundry rooms of the city. Some may be driven out of the city. 2/
Jan 17, 2024 • 56 tweets • 11 min read
Will live tweet the Alberta government announcement starting at 10. Before, worth breaking down a couple items reported in a key story by @laurby ...

First, this is yet another huge vote of confidence by the UCP in Edmonton Police. All roads on offer lead to EPS. 1/ @laurby By this, I mean governance of essentially the whole system will fall under EPS: a) encampments, b) the new reception centre (presumably City + Police), c) EPS 'Integrated Care Centre' (a jail with paramedics and addiction 'treatment'), d) arrests for outstanding warrants. 2/
May 11, 2023 • 4 tweets • 7 min read
Look what you're endorsing @SonyaSharpYYC @JenniferWyness @jasmine_mian #ResignSeanChu @YYCTKW

A drug poisoning profiteer. @SonyaSharpYYC @JenniferWyness @jasmine_mian @YYCTKW Rob Tanguay sells mental health (psychedelic) services to Calgary Police through the Newly Institute, which he co-founded.

What could possibly constitute a greater conflict of interest than the UCP forcing his way onto the Police Commission?
thenewly.ca Newly Institute website sho...
Feb 18, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Here's that 2018-2020 history of Dr Rob Tanguay, one of two physicians named to Preston Manning's COVID review.
Since then, he's very much held the course... 1/
safesupply.ca/one_of_alberta… (sorry for the wait)
In 2020, he helped the UCP justify closure of life-critical supervised consumption sites as a panelist on a wined-and-dined provincial review committee.
He later expressed something resembling regret. 2/
cbc.ca/news/canada/ca….
Dec 16, 2022 • 24 tweets • 8 min read
Link below if you are able to follow along! I'll live tweet to help add some context. 🧵
#YYC #Alberta #Addiction #Incarceration
Coming out of the gates with addiction/mental health framing, which is extremely corrosive, as it ignores the primary reason why people are dying: a poisoned unregulated drug supply.
Dec 16, 2022 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
This column is part of an attack on systematically marginalized Calgarians on the eve of #YYC's provincial announcement of a Calgary task force to deal with public safety.
Tuesday's #YEG announcement set up clear violations of municipal power. Expect similar tomorrow. 🧵 1/ Calgary Sun, Bell: Is Smith UCP tossing Calgary a lifeline o A favourite Rick Bell pastime is conflating the "drug site" (supervised consumption site -- the only guaranteed death-free way to use unregulated drugs) with public safety concerns.
It's wrong. See a criminologist breakdown why: 2/ Many of us have seen or heard or read or lived the experienc
Dec 13, 2022 • 23 tweets • 5 min read
This is outrageous. Live ⬇️
We've got EPS Chief McFee talking about "zero tolerance for open-air drug use" in a city of a million with two underfunded supervised consumption sites and no safe supply program that would allow people to use safely on their own.
Jul 19, 2022 • 9 tweets • 5 min read
Let's talk about #Lethbridge.

Here, you'll find the highest drug poisoning rate in any #Alberta city.

What is happening there is a massacre. 1/8

edmontonjournal.com/news/local-new… In 2020, shortly after coming to power, @YourAlberta accused the ARCHES supervised consumption site, of financial impropriety and closed it down.

The investigation later tracked every last legitimate penny. 2/8

cbc.ca/news/canada/ca…
Jul 18, 2022 • 7 tweets • 5 min read
Safeworks, #Calgary's only supervised consumption site, will be closed by @YourAlberta in the area hit hardest by drug poisoning (red).

Soon after taking power in 2019, the govt cancelled a planned Calgary East mobile site - 2nd hardest-hit (yellow).

edmontonjournal.com/news/local-new… Map of Calgary showing drug poisoning fatality rates in diff @YourAlberta @JyotiGondek @DanWMcLean @SonyaSharpYYC @JenniferWyness @YYCTKW @pootmans @chabot4calgary @kourtpenner @CWalcottYYC @gccarra And yes, the province plans to "replace" the SCS capacity with two overdose prevention sites inside shelters (community access barriers currently unclear). But we've already seen how shuttering services plays out in #Edmonton.
Jun 22, 2022 • 26 tweets • 7 min read
Moral Contradictions of the War on Drugs. THREAD 🧵

1.

We know policing increases drug harms

but increase police funding for drug enforcement.

#SupportDontPunish 2.

We move mountains to find viral vaccines

but won't push paper to release replacements for contaminated drugs.

#SupportDontPunish
Jun 8, 2022 • 20 tweets • 7 min read
Yesterday, @GlobeDebate published the position of Edmonton and Peel police chiefs on drug decriminalization and managing drug poisoning.

I'll point out problems we all need to grapple with if we're going to find the exit to the crisis. 1/19 Decriminalization on its own is insufficient. We need to cha First, the title. Have to stop you right there, officers! Decrim is not a response to an addiction crisis. It's a response to over-policing that contributes to the drug toxicity crisis. 2/19 Title of police opinion piece: Decriminalization on its own
Jun 8, 2022 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
Today, concerned people across Alberta are demanding transparency around #addiction treatment. Many of these people have undergone treatment or had loved ones who did.

Here is a story I've never told that helped inform my views on treatment. 🧵 1/12
#ableg #abpoli The first person I ever knew to die of a drug overdose (i.e. known substance, excessive dose) had attended an expensive, faraway addiction treatment facility just a couple months before. I'll call them Terry. 2/12
Jun 1, 2022 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
Obviously not going to stay quiet on this disgusting announcement by @jkenney so here goes. Hope you enjoy it Premier. 🧵 1/ Premier statement: "Premier Jason Kenney issued the fol Premier, what smoke must you be standing in to not see how you normalize alcohol use with your sky palace SCS? You're giving booze bad branding with how normal it's become around #ableg.

THAT is drug use. And if you ever seek help, its lower stigma will make that easier. 2/ Premier: “Today the Government of Canada and the Governmen