Canadá: la crisis de sobredosis se agudiza y las salas de consumo de drogas permitirán el uso oral y nasal

Noticias

Canadá: la crisis de sobredosis se agudiza y las salas de consumo de drogas permitirán el uso oral y nasal

17 julio 2017

Este será el primer caso en el que un Estado autoriza el consumo oral y nasal en una sala de uso más seguro de drogas fuera de Europa. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

Suscríbase a las Alertas mensuales del IDPC para recibir información sobre cuestiones relacionadas con políticas sobre drogas.

For the first time, Canadian authorities are permitting people to consume drugs orally and nasally in drug consumption rooms, as the country’s overdose crisis escalates.

On June 27, Health Canada – the federal department that oversees public health – granted permission to two drug consumption rooms (DCRs) to allow people to use drugs orally and nasally. The facilities - SafePoint and Quibble Creek Sobering and Assessment Centre – are in Surrey, British Columbia (BC). This marks the first instance of a state approving the oral and nasal consumption - such as swallowing or snorting - of drugs in a DCR outside of Europe.

In these DCRs, people are provided with sterile equipment and individual spaces to use drugs under the supervision of medical professionals equipped with naloxone - the medication used to reverse opioid overdoses. Some Canadian DCRs also provide additional services such as counselling, or places where people may stay after consuming drugs. With the formal approval from Health Canada, people may use these facilities without facing legal consequences for possessing or trafficking of illegal substances.

The two Surrey facilities both opened in June 2017, however their application to allow nasal and oral use of drugs was not granted immediately. Thus, they began exclusively as injection sites.

“About 1,000 people have used SafePoint since it opened on June 8, and 19 of them have overdosed, requiring staff to use the overdose-reversing drug naloxone,” according to Dr. Victoria Lee who serves as the chief medical health officer for the regional healthcare authority funding these sites.

Click here to read the full article.

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