Pubdate: Thu, 28 Jul 2016
Source: Metro (Vancouver, CN BC)
Page: 8
Copyright: 2016 Metro Canada
Contact:  http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3775
Author: David P. Ball
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites)

SURREY GETS 'POP-UP' SAFE INJECTION SITE

Unsanctioned Tent a Response to Overdoses, Mayor's Rebuff

Only hours before the B.C. government announced a new high-level task 
force to curb skyrocketing overdose deaths, a small ragtag group took 
action themselves in one of the Lower Mainland's injection-drug hot spots.

They set up a tent on the side of 135A Street in Surrey's Whalley 
neighbourhood. Before 9 a.m., the group had unfolded plastic tables, 
separated sterile drug paraphernalia into cardboard bowls and clipped 
Naloxone overdose response kits to their belts.

Three drug users pierced their forearms as Metro observed on 
Wednesday, others waiting patiently nearby. They asked not to be 
photographed or identified but praised the visitors from the 
Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) and Pivot Legal Society 
for helping "save lives," one said, even if just for a day.

A local homeless man even donated his only protective tarps to help 
shield the tables for the privacy of the clients.

Dr. Caroline Ferris, specializing in addictions medicine at nearby 
Lookout Health Solutions, volunteered at the pop-up safe injection 
site with a stethoscope around her neck.

"(Provincial Health Officer) Dr. Perry Kendall totally made the right 
move in declaring a public health emergency, although a bit late," 
she told Metro. "This is totally bootlegging; it's totally off the 
grid ... it's not sanctioned, but the cops are leaving us alone 
because they're fed up with responding to overdoses."

Hugh Lampkin has volunteered at VANDU for nine years in the Downtown 
Eastside, including operating previous mobile injection sites there.

"It's a good thing to have in an emergency, a mobile (site)," he told 
Metro. "But in the long term, you want to have a fixed site.

"When I see what's happening to the marginalized people - my friends 
- - I see scapegoating. It's like our lives don't matter. For me, the 
best feeling I have is when somebody ... appreciates what we're doing."

The temporary operation came not only in response to a spike in 
overdoses but also because of comments by Mayor Linda Hepner opposing 
a permanent safe injection facility.

Considering Kendall's emergency declaration in April, Ferris said, 
"This council has to wake up."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom