Marc Townsend, manager of the Portland Hotel Society, enters Insite, Canada’s only safe injection site for intravenous drug addicts in Vancouver, Tuesday, October 2, 2007. The society along with Vancouver Coastal Health Authority operates the site which was given a six-month operating extension by the federal government Tuesday. Richard Lam/CP
VANCOUVER — Vancouver’s health authority has applied for two new supervised-injection sites to combat the drug overdose crisis.
Vancouver Coastal Health says the proposed sites would be embedded into existing community health care centres that serve addicts in the Downtown Eastside.
British Columbia declared a public health emergency earlier this year over a spike in overdoses, many of them linked to the dangerous opioid fentanyl.
Health Minister Terry Lake says more than three million injections have been done at Vancouver’s Insite since the facility opened in 2003 and no one has died of an overdose there.
Vancouver Coastal Health says once Health Canada approves its applications, it will implement the new services and will also submit future applications including for a women’s-only location.
Chief medical health officer Dr. Patricia Daly says as of Sept. 30, 110 people have died of illicit drug overdoses in Vancouver this year.
