Island Health says it will open up Nanaimo’s first official overdose prevention site by the end of January, weeks after two city councillors implemented an unsanctioned site in the parking lot of City Hall.
The health authority says it will add the overdose site to other services offered at a BC Housing-owned low barrier facility at 437 Wesley Street, once staff has been hired and trained.
“Given the number of overdose deaths in our Nanaimo community in the past few years, we’ve identified the need for services for overdose prevention,” Island Health Medical Health Officer Dr. Paul Hasselback said in a statement. “I thank the City of Nanaimo for its support of citizens who are struggling with substance use problems and for working with Island Health.”
The site is only temporary, similar to other “pop-up” overdose sites implemented in Victoria and Vancouver to stem the surging number of overdose deaths linked to the use of illicit opioids such as fentanyl.
But Island Health says the prevention site will remain in operation until a supervised drug consumption site is approved by Health Canada.
Services will be offered seven days a week, with hours yet to be determined, and staff will be equipped with naloxone and be trained in overdose response.
From January through November 2016, 25 people died from an overdose in Nanaimo out of 139 deaths in the Island Health region.
Nanaimo City Hall was shut down for a day at the end of December after Councillors Gord Fuller and Jim Kipp helped set up an unauthorized supervised drug consumption site in the parking lot.
The councillors said they implemented the site because the city had one of the highest increases of drug overdoses in the province, and needed to act to save lives.
B.C. declared a public health emergency last year over the rising number of overdose deaths, and hit a grim milestone in December after setting a record with 755 drug-related fatalities.
The federal government has since stepped in by creating new legislation that would, if passed, eliminate strict requirements for permanent supervised consumption sites and give border guards more authority to inspect packages under 30 grams if they believe they contain illicit drugs.
The legislation would also place new restrictions on importing pill presses, tools commonly used in the production of fentanyl and similar illicit drugs.
