SHUT DOWN DRUG SITE
Insite, the supervised injection site on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, operates under an exemption upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada that allows drug users to be in possession of illicit drugs. It is staffed by a team of registered nurses, qualified counsellors and professional mental health workers, and peer workers. Not only can nurses intervene in the event of an overdose, they tend to wounds and infections and provide immunizations. Insite is a gateway to other services, including addiction treatment, mental health support and housing.
The pop-up injection tent set up last month around the corner from Insite offers none of that. It is a temporary shooting gallery set up by activists who claim it has drawn an average of 100 drug users a day since it opened around Sept. 21.
Unlike Insite, the pop-up site serves users who snort or smoke their drugs, as well as those who inject them. In the event of an overdose, the site has a supply of naloxone, which the operators claim is provided by Vancouver Coastal Health.
But VCH told Postmedia News the site is not connected to the health authority nor does it support or condone it, noting that it’s “not legal.”
The City of Vancouver has also washed its hands of the back-alley facility, saying it is not connected to nor sanctioned by the city.
However, police have not moved to shut down this illegal operation. By allowing it to continue to operate, the city risks a proliferation of similar sites like the marijuana storefronts that have sprouted like weeds in every neighbourhood due to lack of enforcement.
There is a fine line between harm reduction and enabling addiction. Insite represents the former, the pop-up drug tent the latter.
The illegal drug site should be shut down immediately, but there is a clear message governments should take from it. More harmreduction sites like VCH’s Insite and addiction treatment clinics like Providence Health Care’s Crosstown Clinic are desperately needed.
VCH has said it plans to open at least four more supervised injection sites in the region. These should be approved without delay and begin operations as soon as possible.
While the immediate goals of court-sanctioned and health-authority-approved injection sites are to prevent overdose fatalities and the spread of HIV and hep C, the broader purpose is to steer addicts into treatment and social services to improve their overall health and stabilize their lives. A tent handing out syringes cannot do that.