Fraser Health insists supervised consumption site a priority for Surrey
Posted October 6, 2016 12:03 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SURREY (NEWS 1130) – The Fraser Health Authority is outlining a new plan to address the overdose crisis which is hitting Surrey and all parts of the province, but that won’t include a supervised consumption site.
The new plan includes a new needle recovery program, as well as making sure drug users get better information when there are localized spikes in overdoses.
There’s no supervised consumption site as part of this plan, but Dr. Ingrid Tyler with Fraser Health says that’s still a priority. “We would certainly like to be able to make the service available as soon as possible, and we’re working with partners at the federal, provincial and local municipal levels to try to make it happen.”
As of the end of August, 488 people had died in this province this year as a result of overdoses, according to the Coroners Service.
This comes as Vancouver Coastal Health applies for more safe consumption sites.
Advocates for supervised consumption sites have criticized the federal government for making the process for bringing them to communities extremely difficult.
