The provincial government has backed off from the location of an overdose prevention site in Vancouver.
Earlier this month, Vancouver Coastal Health announced that downtown Vancouver’s only overdose prevention site has been moved to a new location due to public safety concerns.
After a temporary closure of the Thomus Donaghy Overdose Prevention Site (OPS), it was to be relocated to Helmcken Street.
However, B.C.’s Health Minister, Josie Osborne, said she, along with Terry Yung, Minister of State for Community Safety and Integrated Services and MLA for Vancouver-Yaletown, have heard concerns from the city, local businesses and community partners about the location of the site.
“Vancouver Coastal Health will not proceed with the overdose-prevention site at 900 Helmcken St. at this time, and there is currently no planned date for opening,” Osborne said in a statement on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Osborne said it is understandable that businesses and residents in the area have expressed concerns.
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“It’s a tough time for businesses right now so we’re going to reset the table, invite all the partners back and we’re going to work collaboratively on a solution that helps provide the services that we need, these critical health services and the proper mitigation and management plans so that businesses and residents can have the faith and confidence that we can do this work together but we’ve got to sit down at the table and do it,” she said.
Osborne added that an overdose prevention site is needed in the downtown core.
“This is the second-highest rate of overdose deaths in the general Vancouver area,” she said.
“They are critical life-saving services. We need them. But we need to do this in a way where partners are at the table and understand how it will be managed, what the mitigation is for impacts that people are concerned about. And so we’re going to sit down and do that work together.”
Who are we to interfere with gods way of culling the population.
Who cares any more let them kill them self we will be better off then
We as a society need to get past the idea that death is the worst thing that can happen to a person. How many times should be bring someone back from an overdose? Eventually their brains are damaged and their souls are demented. In many cases it would be much kinder in my opinion to let some of these zombies leave this plane for what ever is next.