VANCOUVER – It has survived political venom and high court challenges that threatened to close it down, but two million injections later, North America’s only legal supervised injection site is marking a milestone 10th anniversary.
InSite first began as a three-year pilot project to serve drug addicts when it opened its doors Sept. 21, 2003, in the centre of Vancouver’s drug-infested Downtown Eastside.
Between 2004 and 2010 there were over 1,400 overdoses at the site, but health-care staff were able to successfully intervene.
There hasn’t ever been an overdose death at the safe-injection site.
Dr. Patricia Daly, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority’s medical health officer, said there’s no argument that the safe injection site has saved lives over the last decade.
“The research found that there had been no increase in drug use among injection drug users, as a result of opening InSite, no increase in relapse among former users, no increase in crime in the neighbourhood surrounding InSite and a decrease in discarded needles and people injecting in public. All positive outcomes,” she told a crowd gathered at the facility to celebrate the anniversary.
Terri Theodore
The Canadian Press
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