Inside Insite: The battle to create B.C.’s supervised injection clinic

This story is part of A Killer High: A Globe examination into the rise of fentanyl in Canada.

Before there was fentanyl, the highly addictive opioid at the centre of an ongoing national crisis, there was OxyContin, another drug that took the lives of vulnerable populations. And before Oxy, there was heroin.

In Vancouver’s impoverished Downtown Eastside, heroin’s ravages helped tip the province into a public-health crisis in the late 1990s. Borne of necessity 13 years ago, Insite, a supervised-injection clinic that remains the only of its kind of North America, persevered under the Conservative government’s tough-on-crime anti-drug strategy, which ran counter to such treatment models. After successfully battling the government in a series of court cases, the facility has emerged as a model in harm reduction, representing a new approach to addiction treatment that the current Liberal government has embraced and one many communities, including Toronto, are trying replicate.

Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott has publicly voiced support for harm-reduction facilities and, in January, visited Insite, describing the experience as “extremely moving.” Earlier this month, she further distanced her government’s approach from that of the Conservatives, noting that Health Canada is looking at developing a pan-Canadian approach to monitoring prescription drug abuse, as well as projects aimed at developing safer opioid prescribing practices.

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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