More than 1,200 people died of suspected drug overdoses in B.C. in 2017, the deadliest year on record.
But among the grim statistics, advocates for drug users are seeing some glimmers of hope.
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Earlier this week, Vancouver’s first overdose prevention site — which began as an unsanctioned tent in a Downtown Eastside alley — moved indoors and out of the cold.
The site has seen more than 100,000 visits, and has not recorded a single death.
LISTEN: After 100,000 visits, the Downtown Eastside’s first overdose prevention site moves indoors
Speaking with CKNW’s The Jill Bennett Show, Overdose Prevention Society coordinator Sarah Blyth said getting drug users out of the icy weather was absolutely necessary.
“It’s a very, very difficult situation,” she said.
The new location is on the zero block of East Hastings Street.
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Blyth said organizers had searched the neighbourhood for something that would still be accessible to people in the community.
“The most drug users of pretty much all of Canada are in the alleys right behind us, so we really couldn’t move anywhere.”
After finding a suitable location, organizers pressed BC Housing, the City of Vancouver and Vancouver Coastal Health to cut red tape and worked through the bureaucracy to try and get the facility up and running as fast as possible, she said.
On Wednesday, the new location opened its doors.
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“We’re trying to make it a good Christmasy environment. And help people find housing. We helped someone find housing two days ago.”
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The new location is a small victory in a crisis that’s seen more losses than gains. But Blyth is casting a hopeful eye to 2018.
The BC Centre for Disease Control (BC CDC) has floated the idea of dispensing “clean drugs” in the form of hydromorphone (synthetic heroin).
Blyth hopes to see a pilot project up and running by the spring.
“Our most vulnerable people with mental health, physical health, emotional trauma are using drugs and buying them off gangsters who don’t care if they live or die or whether they’re human or anything,” she said.
“It’s not a humane way for us as a country or city to be proud of, and we need to do something about that.”
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