Federal law blocks new supervised injection sites: B.C. officials
From globeandmail.com
Vancouver’s mayor and B.C.’s top health officials have formally requested Ottawa repeal legislation they say imposes unnecessary hurdles to opening new supervised consumption sites.
The call comes as overdose deaths in the province reach a level not seen in nearly 30 years of record keeping, driven in large part by fentanyl – a powerful synthetic opioid – being cut into the majority of street drugs. In the Metro Vancouver suburb of Delta, nine people overdosed in the span of 20 minutes this week after snorting fentanyl, believing it was cocaine. Early data from a nascent drug-testing initiative found that 90 per cent of heroin people brought into Insite, Vancouver’s supervised injection site, contained fentanyl.
Gregor Robertson, B.C. Health Minister Terry Lake, Provincial Health Officer Perry Kendall and others made the request in a letter sent to federal Health Minister Jane Philpott on Wednesday in response to a Globe and Mail report that said she had no immediate plans to repeal or modify the legislation.
Read more here