New drug checking technology being used in qathet region

published on June 2, 2023 in Powell River Peak

Through funding from the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA), qathet community action team (CAT) has purchased a Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer that enables advanced drug testing in a matter of minutes.

According to a media release from Lift Community Services, this is the only rural and remote community in the Vancouver Coastal Health region providing FTIR drug checking services, and Tla’amin Nation is the only First Nation in Canada offering this service in an Indigenous community (on reserve or on treaty settlement lands).

Marlane Paul, health director for Tla’amin Nation, stated: “We need to pick up every tool available to us in this time of unimaginable crisis. The arrival of this technology in our region provides a new way for us to express the Tla’amin value of čɛčɛgatawɬ — that we need to look after and care for all and to not leave anyone behind. The spectrometer is already saving lives and our hands are raised to PHSA for making this possible, and to our community for actively taking up the opportunity to keep one another safe.”…