Vancouver’s safe injection site will no longer close overnight on the days after government assistance payments are made. Health authorities in the west coast city noticed a spike in overdoses from opioids and other street drugs after welfare cheques are issued. Deaths also increased in the overnight hours.
As part of a pilot project, the Insite clinic will stay open 24 hours a day on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of weeks when welfare payments are made. The project will go on for six weeks.
Opened in 2003, this clinic was the first supervised injection site to open in North America. Statistics suggest it has recorded over three-million injections and medical staff there have intervened in almost 5,000 overdose interventions. No user has died.
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