Canadian government leaving Vancouver’s other supervised injection site in legal limbo

News

Canadian government leaving Vancouver’s other supervised injection site in legal limbo

30 April 2015

Vancouver's celebrated supervised injection site (SIS) Insite has rightly garnered scores of media attention over the past decade. But, there is another, lesser-known SIS providing equally vital services to drug users, albeit without the same legal guarantees from the federal government.

The Dr. Peter Centre (DPC), located in Vancouver's downtown West End, has operated an SIS since 2002 alongside its broader health services for people living with HIV/AIDS. It currently has a three-booth drug injection room compared to Insite's 12-booth service, with roughly 25 percent of the centre's visitors having used the SIS on offer.

Yet, despite the length of time the DPC has provided this life-saving service with proven results -- it prevents infections, there have been no overdose deaths, 63 percent of Day Health program participants have engaged in addiction counseling, and around one third entered rehabilitation -- the centre has still never been officially sanctioned by Canada's federal government.

Instead, the DPC has been frustrated by over a year-long wait for a decision on its application for an exemption of Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA). Such an exemption would be the same granted to Insite, which won a 2011 Supreme Court battle on whether the federal government should allow access to SISs. The ruling deemed that exemptions for these facilities should be granted, "where evidence demonstrates that a site stands to decrease death and disease without negatively affecting public safety.

Click here to read the full article.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

Related Profiles

  • Talking Drugs