Opening a safe drug injection site in Kelowna being considered by Interior Health
A drug treatment center director in Kelowna is praising the recent announcement that Interior Health is currently conducting feasibility studies regarding opening a safe-injection site to operate in the Okanagan.
A safe-injection site provides intravenous drug users with a safe, secure environment in which to inject drugs. While Interior Health has stated that it has no plans to open such a facility at present, it has taken the first steps towards exploring such an option.
According to a statement from Interior Health’s chief medical health officer, Dr. Trevor Cornell, safe-injection sites present a valuable tool for mitigating the risks to which substance abuse sufferers are exposed to. Safe sites for use also provide an excellent venue for substance users to connect with services offering treatment.
At the Options Okanagan Treatment Center, program director Doug Mackenzie said that a safe-injection site would be particularly helpful given the recent spate of fatalities coming from drugs laced with fentanyl.
Problems tend to make up the majority of the information flow about substance abuse, according to Mackenzie. Solutions should also be part of the discussion. He said it’s very clear that Canada faces a nationwide epidemic. He also noted that he had personally heard of three deaths involving fentanyl over the past month.
Insite, located in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver in 2002, is the paradigm for the safe-injection site concept.
The centre has not been free of controversy, but it received support in the form of a legal exemption from the Supreme Court to continue its operations in 2011. Thanks to the exemption, neither users nor centre employees will not suffer any legal penalties due to the use of illegal drugs on the centre’s premises.
According to the court’s reasoning for the exemption, Insite had established a positive record for saving lives without encouraging any rise in crime or drug use in the area around it.
Mackenzie said a major part of the opposition to safe-injection sites is the classic “not in my backyard” syndrome. Even when faced with evidence of such sites’ value, nearby residents may be leery about such programs operating in close proximity to their families.
The Conservative government passed the Respect for Communities Act last year, which posed several new restrictions for injection sites to overcome.
Vancouver Coastal Health, the body which operates Insite, said when Act was passed was effectively a ban on new safe-injection sites. Health Canada was able to gain approval for opening a second site in Vancouver recently thanks to support from the new Liberal government.
According to Mackenzie, injection drugs are getting used in his area regardless of their legal status. He sees no reason to prevent responsible people from monitoring the activity and addressing it directly.
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