The very people whose job it is to enforce the laws in Vancouver want to see a safe supply of drugs made available to addicts.As pleas from advocates and health experts for safe supply continue to mount, the Vancouver Police Department says it shares the view that addiction is a health-care issue and not a criminal justice matter.
"We support safe supply and treatment on demand,' said Bill Spearn, an inspector with the VPD's Organized Crimes Section, adding criminalizing the addicted drives them toward crime.
Guess Who's Asking For A Safe Drug Supply?
Fri, 2019-09-20 19:19
#1
Guess Who's Asking For A Safe Drug Supply?
Fri, 2019-09-20 19:23
#2
alan smithee
Excellent. I wish this had a hope in hell in Quebec.
Fri, 2019-09-20 19:28
#3
After thousands of deaths recently here in BC, it seems reality is finally setting in. A safe drug supply has been desperately needed and politicians and bureaucrats finally seem to be seeing the light.
Fri, 2020-09-11 21:18
#4
I stumbled across this thread while searching for a different topic. Given the sharp rise in overdoses in Vancouver and Winnipeg since the start of the pandemic, I'm gonig to give this thread a
*bump*
Fri, 2020-09-11 21:43
#5
Covid is accelerating change.
Sun, 2020-09-13 03:47
#6
The graph accompanying this url illustrates why the long overdue change in drug policy is starting to come.
About 5,000 people in B.C. have died of illicit-drug overdoses since the public health emergency was declared in 2016.
British Columbia has nearly matched its monthly record for deadly illicit drug overdoses, with 175 deaths during the month of July.
The BC Coroners Service saw 177 fatalities in June, which surpassed the previous high of 174 deaths in May. The service initially reported 175 deaths for June but updated the number on Tuesday.
A statement said the service has detected "a sustained increase" of illicit drug toxicity deaths since the first peak of the pandemic in March, and it's now confirming five straight months with more than 100 such deaths.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, who has led the response to the province's concurrent health crises of overdoses and the novel coronavirus, said the pandemic has led to more people using and dying alone.
"It's dismaying to know that all of the work that we have done around responding to COVID-19 has been a contributing factor to the numbers of deaths that we're seeing from the toxic drug supply here in British Columbia and across Canada," she said at a news conference Tuesday.
Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe said the pandemic has restricted access to critical harm-reduction services. Still, she urged people to go to supervised injection site or drug overdose prevention sites to check substances for toxicity and not to use alone.
"If you are using illicit substances, whether it be fentanyl, cocaine or methamphetamine, [use] only in the presence of someone else," she said.
Just under 80 per cent of people who have died of an overdose in B.C. this year were men. Eighty-five per cent of the deaths happened indoors. No deaths have been reported at supervised injection sites or drug overdose prevention sites.
There was a 93 per cent increase in the number of Indigenous people dying of an illicit overdose from January to May. Indigenous people make up 3.4 per cent of the population in B.C., but accounted for 16 per cent of overdoses in that time period — a rate five times higher than other B.C. residents.
Fentanyl remains the most significant driver in the high number of deaths across all demographics. Opioids were found among all those who died, along with cocaine and the stimulants methamphetamine and amphetamine. ...
There was a 93 per cent increase in the number of Indigenous people dying of an illicit overdose from January to May. Indigenous people make up 3.4 per cent of the population in B.C., but accounted for 16 per cent of overdoses in that time period — a rate five times higher than other B.C. residents.
Fentanyl remains the most significant driver in the high number of deaths across all demographics. Opioids were found among all those who died, along with cocaine and the stimulants methamphetamine and amphetamine. ...
Officials have said border closures during the pandemic have disrupted the usual flow of fentanyl into B.C., leading the supply to be replaced by an unstable and unpredictable substances produced locally by those who might be inexperienced.
"The quality control has never obviously been there with fentanyl, but it's that much worse now, when drug traffickers and dealers are throwing the kitchen sink and whatever they have to make the product," said Dr. Dan Kalla, head of emergency medicine at St. Paul's Hospital in downtown Vancouver.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-overdose-numbers-july...
Sun, 2020-09-13 19:24
#7
laine lowe
Amazing how public perception has changed in the past 10-15 years. Harper and other conservative provincial and municipal governemts tried to stop safe injection sites from being an thing. Now we have a public discourse that is actually considering the decriminalization of all drug use.
Thu, 2020-09-17 03:25
#8
A step in the right direction?
B.C. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has issued a new public health order making it easier for people to access safe alternatives to toxic street drugs — a move advocates say is desperately needed as deaths from B.C.'s opioid crisis continue to climb.
The order, issued on Wednesday, authorizes registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses to prescribe pharmaceutical alternatives to street drugs "to help separate more people from the poisoned street drug supply to save lives and provide opportunities for ongoing care, treatment and support."
Until now, only doctors and nurse practitioners have been able to prescribe drugs, including substitute medications for illicit-drug users as an alternative to potentially deadly substances on the street.
Overdose deaths have spiked in B.C. since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. B.C. recorded 911 overdose deaths between January and July 2020. Over that same period of time, 195 people died of COVID-19.
More than 5,000 people have fatally overdosed in B.C. since the province declared a public health emergency in 2016. Before the pandemic, the number of fatalities had been on the decline for the first time since 2012.
Sun, 2022-02-20 09:29
#9
Vancouver drug users take safe supply into their own hands
“They talk, we die.”
Those words, spoken last week by Laura Shaver in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, summed up the message she was there to deliver.
On February 9, Vancouver’s Drug User Liberation Front, together with the BC Association of People on Opiate Maintenance, held a giveaway of measured and tested doses of meth, cocaine and heroin.
The giveaway was planned to coincide with a grim announcement by the BC Coroners office: 2,224 British Columbians died of overdoses last year. Overdose deaths had hovered in the low hundreds until 2015, when shocking yearly increases led to the current record high number. In 2016, BC’s provincial health officer declared a public health emergency related to opioid overdoses.
quote:
Regulated, legalized supply is the way to prevent further deaths
The overdose crisis in the US and Canada that has killed record numbers of people is directly related to the toxic drug supply. Those who gathered at VANDU on February 9 are sure that the only way out of the crisis is a safe supply.
“If I go down the block and buy a 10 paper of heroin, of down, I do not know what is in it, ” said Eris Nyx, who is an organizer with DULF. “I do not know whether or not it is contaminated with benzodiazepines. I do not know whether or not it is contaminated with fentanyl. And I do not know whether or not it has drywall dust or rat poop or God knows what.”
Nyx’s message was loud and clear: we need regulation.
“Maybe you’re seeking euphoria. Maybe you’re trying to cope with trauma that has been dealt, both historically or otherwise,” said Nyx, her voice carrying a note of anger. “But we know that if you choose to use drugs, that should not be a death sentence.”
DULF and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) are seeking to pilot a Compassion Club, which would allow them to distribute a safe supply of narcotics to approximately 200 people who are already using drugs. In August, DULF requested an exemption to Section 56 of Health Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, which would decriminalize participation in the pilot.
Health Canada has yet to respond to DULF’s request or to meet with its members, and users say the BC government’s Opioid Agonist Treatment and so-called “safe supply” programs are “rigid, punitive and have failed to keep pace with this crisis.”
Drug toxicity is now the second leading cause of death in BC, surpassed only by cancers. “It is long past time to end the chaos and devastation in our communities resulting from the flourishing illicit drug market—and to ensure, on an urgent basis, access across the province to a safe, reliable regulated drug supply,” said BC’s Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe in a release.
Safe supply activists risk arrest, demand new political leadership
The lack of meaningful response to the overdose crisis has led DULF, VANDU and the BC Association of People on Opiate Maintenance (BCAPOM) to call for the resignation of the BC Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and the Federal Minister of Health.
The February 9 action was the fifth of its kind organized by DULF. Manuel Axel Strain from the Musqueam nation opened the event with a reflection on how the overdose crisis is connected to genocide. “The amount of Indigenous people that we’ve lost is far too much; far too difficult,” they said.
They were followed by drug user activists, who described the event as an example of how their community is leading the response to thousands of needless deaths in the province. A massive black coffin was carried in and set beside them, later, a poem written for the occasion was read. After the speeches, everyone stood for a moment of silence in memory of those who have died from overdose.....