Surrey supervised injection site sees 20K visits in first 6 months

In the six months since it has been in operation, Surrey’s new supervised injection site has seen nearly 20,000 visits.

The SafePoint clinic on 135A Street, better known as the Whalley Strip, opened on June 8.

Operators say the facility has about 1,000 regular users, and that the facility is saving lives.

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SafePoint manager Fraser Mackay said it has reversed 275 overdoses since opening.

More than 133 people have already died of overdoses in Surrey this year, according to the BC Coroners Service.

Mackay said the new site is addressing a need that has been going unmet.

“The accelerated use of SafePoint really just reflects a problem that we needed to tackle for some time, and that we are doing so very aggressively on a number of levels.”

Surrey has a second, smaller supervised injection site beside the hospital for people registered in the addictions program.