Straight Talk

DRUG-DETECTING TEST STRIPS CURB OVERDOSES

Vancouver health officials are cautiously expanding access to drug-testing equipment that detects fentanyl, the synthetic opioid associated with hundreds of deaths in B.C. each year.

Dr. Mark Lysyshyn is the Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) lead on harm reduction and substance use. He told the Straight that authorities have deemed a yearlong trial at the city’s first legal injection facility, Insite, a success, and are now making the test strips available at additional locations.

“We’ve had over 1,500 tests conducted [at Insite] and the results look positive,” he said in a telephone interview. “If you do your test before you use, you are more likely to reduce your dose and then less likely to overdose.”

VCH statistics covering a ninemonth period of the trial show that when drugs test positive for fentanyl, a user is 10 times more likely to reduce their dose and 25 percent less likely to overdose.

“They can reduce harm,” Lysyshyn said. “So now we’re in the process of training at various overdose-prevention sites. And hopefully, by the end of the summer, we’ll have them available there.”

Vancouver officials recently announced the city hit an all-time high for fatal overdoses in a single year. As of August 14, there had been 232 suspected drug-overdose deaths in 2017. That puts Vancouver on track for more than 400 deaths by the end of this year, as compared with 231 confirmed deaths in 2016, 136 the year before that, and 101 in 2014.

The first two locations to receive the fentanyl-test strips are facilities at 62 East Hastings and 380 East Hastings Street.

Lysyshyn emphasized that the equipment has limitations. While it indicates whether fentanyl is present, it says nothing about how much is present. There is also uncertainty about how good the strips are at detecting drugs different from but similar to fentanyl—carfentanil, for example, which is significantly more toxic. However, Lysyshyn said on this question, there may be good news.

“There is starting to be information available that suggests the strips actually perform better than we’ve thought they do,” he explained. Lysyshyn said that the strips’ manufacturer, Ontariobased BTNX Inc., and a U.S. nonprofit called Dancesafe have been experimenting with fentanyl analogues like carfentanil, and while the results are not yet official, it appears the strips are finding them.

“Informally, they believe that the strips detect many of the fentanyl analogues as well,” Lysyshyn said. “If the strips actually do detect all or most of the relevant analogues…then our hope will be to also offer these beyond the overdose-prevention sites.” On August 19, a small group of antiimmigration activists planned to hold a rally at City Hall. Barely a handful showed. And more than 4,000 people flooded the area to assert that North America’s so-called altright is not welcome in Vancouver.

There, the Straight caught up with Jean Swanson, an independent candidate for council in a by-election scheduled for October 14. Swanson talked about Vancouver’s efforts to become a sanctuary city, a term that describes municipal policies designed to give undocumented immigrants safe access to local services such as health care and libraries.

Vancouver city council—which is dominated by the mayor’s Vision Vancouver party—voted in favour of such a plan in April 2016, calling it “Access to City Services Without Fear”. But Swanson argued it doesn’t go far enough.

“The city’s current access-withoutfear policy does not apply to the police, who can still tell people to reveal their immigration status,” she explained. “This means that many people without immigration status— largely racialized people who are the targets of white supremacists—are afraid to even go to the police. If they do, they could be detained and deported. This isn’t right.”

In March 2016, the Straight reported that Vancouver police had referred more cases to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) than any other force in southern B.C. In 2014, that number was 321 and in 2015, it was 144.

In a recent phone interview, Const. Jason Doucette, a spokesperson for the force, said the VPD generally only contacts the CBSA in the course of an investigation of something more serious than a matter of immigration.

Vision Vancouver councillor Andrea Reimer noted that the police department operates with a degree of autonomy. She maintained that with the access policies adopted in April 2016, council went as far as it could.

“We’re very aligned [with Swanson] wanting the police to get involved with an access-without-fear policy,” Reimer told the Straight. “My sense is the police are committed to doing that. It’s about figuring out how to do it.” Independent park commissioner Erin Shum isn’t sure whether she’ll remain unaffiliated going into the 2018 Vancouver municipal election.

Shum related that she has time to consider the proper vehicle for her young political career, including a new civic party.

“I still have about 15 months to really get to know the community, so I think getting to know the community will show some of the leaders or people that are interested in running. Perhaps we could always, you know, group up and start a new political party,” Shum told the Straight in a phone interview on August 22.

Shum broke from the Nonpartisan Association in stunning fashion last year, accusing her former colleagues in caucus of bullying her.

According to the first-term park commissioner, there is a desire among many, including those in established parties, to see a new political formation in the city.

“There’s definitely conversations like, you know, when I go and have coffee with people from all parties, they all talk about something like, ‘Maybe we need something new.’… So it’s always a dialogue, a conversation we’re all having,” Shum said.

For now, Shum intends to “build relationships with everybody”.

“It could be a young new association or group, or it could be a brand-new party. I don’t know, but definitely, I think, people who come out and put their name forward and just have a simple coffee chat, just to get to know each other, set a little group, and you never know what could happen,” Shum said.

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