“approximately a third of people who inject drugs in vancouver have difficulty injecting themselves and sometimes require assistance,” she said. “a number of past studies have shown that this population is much more likely to overdose and to experience violence.”
in the current study, 10.6 per cent of participants reported they had overdosed at least once in the last six months, kennedy said.
“most studies to date have focused on these highly regulated medical delivery models that are staffed by health professionals, like at insite,” she said, referring to north america’s first such facility, which opened in vancouver’s downtown eastside in 2003.
“staff at insite have never been able to help these people to inject and so they’ve had no choice but to inject in alleys and in public, which has left them vulnerable to serious harms.”
trey helten, manager of the
overdose prevention society
, which operates two of nine overdose prevention sites in vancouver, said many entrenched drug users avoid insite because it has an institutional feel and too many rules.
anyone who passes drugs to another user is banned for 24 hours, along with the person who accepts them, he said.
“as a former drug user, when i was using insite, i would consider it high-barrier (access),” helten said, adding other overdose prevention sites have no barriers in comparison.