Jan 6, 2021
CIRES is pleased to support the Overdose Prevention Society's (OPS) move to another space within our Portfolio
OPS moved into the newly renovated space on the ground floor of the Irving Hotel located at 390 Columbia Street on January 1st.
After a busy year, OPS founding member Sarah Blyth says the new art-filled space is a welcome change. The move is coming in the midst of a terrible year for overdose deaths in British Columbia. With borders closed because of COVID-19, the illicit drug supply has become more toxic than ever. With an average of 140 deaths in the first 11 months of 2020, B.C. is on track to record 1,688 deaths from toxic drugs by the end of this year. The trend is a reverse of what happened in 2019 when drug poisoning deaths fell for the first time in four years.
The Overdose Prevention Society started during the fall of 2016, with just a tent and volunteers who could administer first aid and naloxone — an overdose reversal drug — if clients overdosed. The service it offered was technically illegal, but with deaths mounting the B.C. government quickly got on board to support the model.
Two supervised injection sites had already been operating in Vancouver since the early 2000s, but the process to open new sites was onerous, with operators required to jump through many bureaucratic hoops.
The OPS showed how more sites could be opened quickly to meet demand as using drugs became more dangerous across Canada.
Standing in the bright L-shaped space at 390 Columbia Street, Blyth said 2020 has been difficult. The overdoses that staff were seeing were more complicated because of the addition of benzodiazepines, a type of drug that often puts people into deep unconsciousness and can’t be counteracted with naloxone. Drugs are often contaminated with both benzos and fentanyl, Blyth said.
“The overdose doesn’t just end with Narcan,” Blyth said, using the brand name for naloxone. “They’ll be completely comatose with the benzos. That adds caretaking for folks throughout the day.”
Policies put in place to restrict the spread of COVID-19 have also reduced the number of shelter spots and drop-in spaces for people who are unhoused or precariously housed.
The overdose prevention site, which stayed open to offer life-saving services, has filled in some of the gaps. That includes distributing food, helping people find housing, and giving out tents, blankets and sleeping bags.
The new space is also filled with work from the many artists who make their home in the Downtown Eastside — from city scenes by Ken Foster to graffiti art by Smokey D and BOY, to landscapes by Stephen Saulnier (check out the Facebook page Downtown Eastside Artists Collective to find out more).
Blyth says overdose prevention sites can act as a gateway to get people connected to health and housing services, and there should be more of them.
Blyth called overdose prevention sites “the frontlines to the people who are using drugs.”
“People feel safe when they come in — it’s a great way to start the first bond with people to earn their trust when they haven’t had a lot of trust in the systems,” Blyth said.
“You can meet people where they’re at, and then you can connect them with services. We get people housing, we get people food, we get people clothing. If you get safe supply [prescription drugs to replace illicit drugs] and you start ramping it up, these places can turn into safe supply centres... or help people get into rehabilitation.”
Read the full article at The Tyee Author: Jen St. Denis
