How exactly is an overdose prevention site established in B.C.?

published on March 23, 2024 by Graeme Wood in Vancouver Is Awesome

For all the failures the Auditor General of B.C. found in the provincial government’s implementation of overdose prevention and supervised consumption sites, it did not look at one key aspect that boiled over into controversy most recently in Richmond: that is, how exactly is the establishment of such sites determined in the first place?

If, as the auditor found, health authorities lacked guidance and minimum service standards from the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions in operating the sites, they surely lacked them in establishing them, assert two proponents of such services in Richmond, where 26 people died of a suspected drug poisoning or overdose in 2023.

“I was aware there was no threshold; I was aware that there was no matrix; I was aware that there was no established criteria,” said Richmond city councillor Kash Heed.

“I was absolutely aware of the fact this was highly subjective and highly political,” said Heed…