VANCOUVER — Drug users at supervised consumption sites is Surrey, B.C., will be allowed to use substances orally and nasally, not just by injection, in the first such exemption approved by Health Canada.
The two sites, SafePoint and the Quibble Creek Sobering and Assessment Centre, opened separately earlier this month but permitted users to only inject drugs under medical supervision.
Fraser Health had submitted applications for the facilities asking that users also be allowed to snort drugs or take them orally but Health Canada did not grant the request when it allowed the sites to open.
Today's decision means drug users are exempt from laws involving possession and trafficking of controlled substances even if they go beyond shooting up their own drugs.
Two other supervised consumption sites that have existed in Vancouver for years, along with those that have recently been allowed to open in the city and elsewhere in Canada, still only allow drug use by injection.
Fraser Health's chief medical health officer Dr. Victoria Lee says that while the main concern is reversing overdoses and saving lives amid a crisis of fatalities, supervised consumption sites are also a gateway to treat opioid addiction.
