VANCOUVER — Construction of Vancouver’s first indoor supervised site for people who inhale illicit drugs is complete in the city’s Downtown Eastside and its executive director says people could start using the new rooms in weeks.

Dr. Julio Montaner, at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS which operates the site, says supervised injection sites have been extremely successful in stopping people from dying of overdoses, and similar services need to be offered to people who smoke their drugs.

Nearly two-thirds of overdose deaths in British Columbia in 2023 came after smoking illicit drugs, yet only 40 per cent of supervised consumption sites in the province offer a safe place to smoke, often outdoors, in a tent.

The new facilities offer indoor, individual, negative pressure rooms that allow fresh air to circulate and can clear out smoke in 30 to 60 seconds while users are monitored by trained nurses.

Montaner says work to get the facility up and running has taken years and was possible thanks to a single $4 million donation, with the hope it will provide a model for how more facilities can be run in the future.

He says the organization is waiting on final city approvals and for the federal government to expand the centre’s exemption of national drug laws.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.

The Canadian Press