For the geeks (I admit to being one) and the skeptics (I used to be one), here’s a brief word about how I conducted my investigation. My research involved a mixed-methods approach. Given the emergent nature of the opioid crisis, in addition to conducting a thorough literature review on the subject, my primary sources of information for this study derived from empirical research, using qualitative methods.
Forty-two individuals with expertise related to the opioid crisis were interviewed using a semi-structured method for between 45 and 90 minutes each. These individuals are listed in the Interviewees section. Most interviews were conducted in person in Vancouver, Surrey, and Victoria between February and April 2018, with a few additional interviews in May and June 2018. Where in-person interviews weren’t possible they were conducted by telephone. All interviews were digitally recorded, with the permission of the participant, and transcribed by a professional transcription service. The interview transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis, supported by Nvivo 11 software.
All interviews were conducted with the written informed consent of participants and with harmonized ethics approval from the UBC Behavioural Research Ethics Board, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, Providence Health Care, Fraser Health, and Island Health. Operational approval was also secured from these health authorities. The interviews were for attribution, unless the participant wished to be anonymous.
Additional primary sources were consulted, including to check facts from the interviews, such as public court records, archival sources, judicial decisions, coroner’s reports, and records released under the BC Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Secondary sources included legal, criminological, sociological, medical, addiction, and public health peer-reviewed literature as well as governmental and non-governmental reports. Specific written sources that I relied upon in the book appear in the Notes section.