Drug users and supporters demanded action on the overdose crisis in Victoria on Tuesday as part of a national day of action.
More than a dozen people gathered at 2920 Bridge Street calling for increased access to opioid substitution treatments and the decriminalization of all drugs.
Organizers say they want the Bridge Street site be opened as a community health centre "run by people who use drugs and allied harm reduction organizations."
“Any person who doesn’t have that lived experience in the streets is not going to be trusted when they come down to the streets to offer their help,” said Jack Phillips, a board member from the Society of Living Illicit Drug Users (SOLID).
Out of 116 overdose deaths in the province last month, seven drug users died in Victoria while four died in Nanaimo, according to the BC Coroners Service.
Organizers say a more comprehensive approach is “urgently” needed.
“If we had a truly harm reductive environment in which to have more of a community centre that has a safe consumption site in it, you’d find that it would just be a more well-suited facility for that use,” Phillips said.
Along with the press conference the group held a rally outside the Ministry of Health building on Blanshard Street.
Similar events were held in cities across the country, including in Nanaimo, Vancouver, Toronto and Halifax.
