Drug Addictions: A timeline of harm reduction measures

published on July 19, 2018 by Daphne Bramham, in Vancouver Sun

1964: Ontario’s Addiction Research Foundation provides Canada’s first methadone treatment program. By the early 1970s, methadone was being prescribed in every province including B.C.

1984: The Netherlands launches the world’s first needle exchange program.

1986: The first legal, supervised injection sites opened in Bern, Switzerland.

1989: British Columbia’s first needle exchange program began. It was a pilot project funded by the city of Vancouver and run by the Downtown Eastside Youth Activities Society and the North Health Unit.

1991: The number of B.C. patients registered for the methadone maintenance program was 1,221. By 2017, there were 27,553 and by 2020, its forecast to be 58,000.

1996: The B.C. Centre for Excellence HIV and AIDS began injection drug users study.

1997: Public health emergency is declared in Vancouver in response to increasing overdose deaths, hepatitis A, B and C, syphilis and HIV infections.

1997: Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users is formed by people who use street drugs, to “increase their capacity to live healthy and productive lives.”

2001: City Council approved the Four Pillar Approach to Drug Problems in Vancouver.

2002: Needle distribution replaced needle exchange in B.C.

2003: North America’s first legal supervised injection site opened in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

2005: Vancouver approved Preventing Harm From Psychoactive Substance Use, a plan identifying stigma as a key driver of socialization. The city also called for the government of Canada consider regulatory alternatives to drug prohibition for currently illegal drugs.

2010: Vancouver endorsed the Vienna Declaration, highlighting the failure of drug prohibition and recognizing that stigma undermines public health efforts around drug use.

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BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS

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Drug Addictions: A timeline of harm reduction measures

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