Brazil and Colombia look to Vancouver’s Insite for their own harm reduction drug strategies

VANCOUVER – Delegates from Colombia and Brazil hope to replicate Vancouver’s innovative approach to harm reduction around illegal drug use even as the Canadian government aims to impose stricter rules for opening supervised injection sites.

Representatives of Viva Rio, a non-profit organization in Rio De Janeiro, and a government official from Colombia visited Insite, Vancouver’s safe injection site, on Tuesday, saying they’re looking for a way to lower the impact of drug use in their countries.

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Earlier this week, a report by the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS said that Vancouver’s approach to illicit drug use is effective because the number of people reported sharing needles dropped dramatically between 1996 and 2011.

The Canadian Press
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During the Canada Post strike announced September 25, 2025, the following measures will be undertaken to minimize service disruption to BC-CfE clients and providers.

  • The BC-CfE Laboratory has transitioned to private courier for delivery of outgoing reports and documents. Results required urgently can be faxed upon request. (Lab Contact Information: Phone 604-806-8775; FAX 604-806-9463)
  • The BC-CfE Drug Treatment Program (DTP) will fax outgoing forms and documents to the provider’s office. (DTP Contact Information: Phone 604-806-8515; FAX 604-806-9044)
  • St. Paul’s Hospital Ambulatory Pharmacy has transitioned to private courier for delivery of medications. We recommend requesting medication at least 2 weeks in advance in case of delivery delays, particularly to rural/remote parts of BC. (Contact Information: Phone 1-800-547-3622; FAX 604-806-8675)

During the Canada Post strike, we recommend that documents be faxed or couriered to our sites, versus utilization of regular mail service

The BC-CfE Laboratory is streamlining reporting processes for certain tests in order to simplify distribution and record-keeping, and to ensure completeness of results. Beginning September 2, 2025, results for the ‘Resistance Analysis of HIV-1 Protease and Reverse Transcriptase’ (Protease-RT) and ‘HIV-1 Integrase Resistance Genotype’ tests will be combined into a single ‘HIV-1 Resistance Genotype Report’.
For more details and example reports, please click on the button below

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