NEW PREVENTION SITE NEIGHBOURHOOD’S SEVENTH

Another overdose prevention site has opened in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in an effort to relieve pressure on two nearby sites that have had 120,000 visits since last December. The Molson site will be the seventh overdose prevention facility in the impoverished neighbourhood. B.C. Addictions Minister Judy Darcy says in a news release there is a great need for the sites, which record a total of about 700 visits every day. Dr. Patricia Daly, Vancouver’s chief medical health officer, says many of the services are being led by peers, people who have real-life experience with substance use. B.C.’s coroners’ service says 876 people died of illicit drug overdoses in the province in the period ending July 31, many while using drugs alone in private residences.