Fraser Health looking at adding some supervised drug consumption sites

SURREY (NEWS 1130) – The Fraser Health Authority wants to open some supervised drug consumption sites as a way to prevent more overdoses linked to opioids. The health authority is reassuring the public after 43 people overdosed over the weekend.

It’s believed this rash of overdoses was caused by crack cocaine laced with fentanyl. All 43 people survived.

The sites would be modeled after ones already found in Vancouver, but likely located in existing community and health outreach centers. Chief Medical Health Officer Dr Victoria Lee says they’re already planning on where the sites will go.

“We are working actively first to identify priority communities, high-risk communities. We are waiting for the coroner’s data to better inform us of where we can best meet the needs of our community.”

Dr. Lee expects there could be push-back, but evidence shows supervised consumption sites don’t harm neighbourhoods.

“Neighbourhoods in which supervised consumption services have been situated have seen reductions in public drug use and reductions in publicly discarded needles and no increase in crime.”

Getting permission to open the sites will take a lot of time under the current process. The health authority will have to apply for exemption from Respect for Communities Act. Dr Lee says Fraser Health is asking for that application process to change.

Fraser Health has also set a goal of giving every overdose survivor a take-home naloxone kit. That’s the drug someone overdosing can take to reverse the effects. The health authority handed out 857 of these kits between January and May. That’s ten times the number of kits dispensed during that same period last year.

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