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Two sides to overdose prevention site

The Duncan site is now seeing over 1,000 visits a month.
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Two sides to overdose prevention site

Those of us who attended the Thursday evening meeting regarding the opioid crisis in the Valley heard some alarming statistics about the number of fellow citizens who have died as a result of overdoses.

We heard that our site is one of nine on Vancouver Island that were set up as an emergency response to the sudden rise in overdose deaths as fentanyl and carfentanil appeared on the drug scene. The Duncan site is now seeing over 1,000 visits a month. This means that the trained staff have 1,000 chances to prevent death as their clientele becomes accustomed to the safety of taking their drugs under supervision. This aspect of the evening was inspiring.

The other side of the story we heard from the people who live near the site. They told of the clients hanging around the building waiting for the doors to open, doing drugs after hours, and syringes and needles left in the open.

In some ways, the local people are the real heroes here. They are the ones being impacted by this critical response to sudden death and in a sense they are the ones saving lives. It is, however, understandable why they are upset about the changes in their lives. One wonders if the same things are occurring near the other eight sites and what is being done to help the local residents.

I think we need to ask ourselves: if the site cannot be moved, then what can we do as a community to reduce the impact on the people close by? This should not be an adversarial situation. It is much more. We are saving the lives of our friends and relatives, let’s do our best to make this work for everyone.

Keith Grey

Duncan