Stephanie Lake

Stephanie Lake is a doctoral student in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia and a researcher with the BC Centre on Substance Use at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. Her work focuses on evaluating how cannabis legalization might impact the opioid overdose crisis, healthcare engagement, and health outcomes among people who use illicit drugs in Canada.

Her research leverages data from two cohort studies involving over 2,000 participants to analyze trends in opioid use (e.g., heroin, fentanyl), healthcare access, and clinical outcomes like overdose rates. Stephanie actively translates her findings into policy through publications in leading journals such as The International Journal of Drug Policy and Drug and Alcohol Dependence, and her commentary on medical cannabis guidelines (2015) reached over 125 media outlets nationally.

She holds a Bachelor of Health Sciences from the University of Ottawa and a Master of Science in Population Health from the University of British Columbia. Her contributions have been recognized with prestigious awards including the CIHR Frederick Banting and Charles Best Scholarship, the UBC Four-Year Doctoral Fellowship, and the UBC/CIHR Bridge Fellowship.

• Frederick Banting and Charles Best Graduate Scholarship (CIHR)
• UBC Four-Year Doctoral Fellowship
• UBC/CIHR Bridge Fellowship