Vancouver’s drug issue isn’t getting better, and Insite will be forced to expand hours to help prevent the increasing amount of overdoses in the lower mainland.
Insite, launched by Vancouver Coastal Health in 2003, is a supervised injection site on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
It’s open daily, but is closed between 3:00am to 9:00am – something that will change as it launches a new six-month pilot project to keep doors open around the clock on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday when welfare cheques come in.
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According to the facility, there’s been a rising amount of overdoses between the window of time they’re closed and they’ll now be adding a third shift from 2:00am through 10:00am.
They also report that there’s a 50 per cent increase in opioid-related overdoses when welfare cheques are issued.
Between January 1 to June 30, 2016, there has been nearly 400 overdose deaths in British Columbia, which is 75 per cent higher than the same period in 2015. Among those deaths, 127 were in the Fraser Valley.
The crisis has led to health officials asking for a second safe injection site in Surrey, where the drug crisis is nearly equal to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
