Island Health intends to apply for at least two supervised drug consumption sites in Victoria by the end of the year, officials said Thursday.
The B.C. Coroners Service released statistics this week showing Vancouver Island with the worst drug overdose death rate in the province.
Harm-reduction advocates say the sites are needed so that people have a safe place to consume drugs and receive immediate medical attention if they overdose.
“The bottom line is we’re committed to getting the application in by the end of the year,” said Suzanne Germain, a strategic adviser with Island Health’s population and community health division.
The federal government requires site operators to apply for an exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to meet public health and safety requirements.
Germain said Island Health is working with city officials, police and community representatives on a plan for multiple small sites. The idea is that using smaller sites it will improve access for drug users, and prevent large numbers of people from congregating at a single site.
The plan also calls for a range of services. “So it’s not only supervised consumption — there’ll be other support services and, hopefully, primary care, clinical services, those kinds of things around it,” she said.
Island Health expects to locate sites in areas where it knows people already use drugs and where police, fire and ambulance officials have responded to overdoses.
“It will be in the Victoria core area,” Germain said.
The federal government requires that applicants consult with the community, and Island Health expects to begin that process this fall.
“It isn’t a lot of time, but that’s our commitment,” she said.
“Typically, a public consultation process runs three to four weeks, and that’s our intent to do that.”
Other health authorities are involved in a similar process, and Health Minister Terry Lake said the provincial government is “extremely supportive of those efforts.” Interior Health, for instance, is considering applying for sites in Kamloops and Kelowna.
Lake repeated calls this week for the federal Liberal government to repeal the Conservatives’ Respect for Communities Act, which, he said, is a barrier to the creation of more supervised consumption sites.
“We are doing whatever we can to clear the path for safe consumption sites, because we know from our experience at Insite that it saves lives,” Lake said, referring to the first safe injection site, which opened in Vancouver in 2003.
The B.C. Coroners Service released statistics Wednesday showing Island Health with a drug-overdose death rate of 18.1 per 100,000 people to the end of August — highest among B.C. health authorities. As a whole, the province’s rate was 15.5 deaths per 100,000 people.
There were 93 deaths on Vancouver Island, including 39 in Victoria, which trailed only Vancouver and Surrey with the highest totals among urban areas.
