VANCOUVER—Two Maple Ridge RCMP officers sat in a police cruiser, on the grassy patch of land Thursday morning where Ivan Drury and other advocates had set up an overdose prevention site the day before.

There was little sign that less than 24 hours prior, there had been a tent full of volunteers and health-care supplies on that spot — except the grass was freshly cut. Anti-poverty activists had cut the previously overgrown grass to prepare for the unsanctioned supervised consumption site.

That same day, the BC Centre for Disease Control released a report that showed more than 3,000 lives have been saved by harm-reduction strategies including overdose prevention sites like this one.

“We figured, naively, that the province would support the OPS,” said Drury, using the acronym for overdose prevention site, where drug users can consume substances with a trained witness nearby to deliver the antidote naloxone or other care if necessary.

Drury, a spokesperson for the anti-poverty group Alliance Against Displacement, said Thursday the organization is giving Fraser Health Authority until Monday to select a site in Maple Ridge for an overdose prevention site.

“It’s a testament to the need for the site that despite there being such an intense police presence, and that police criminalized the site immediately, we still had people coming into the site,” he said.

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The unsanctioned site remained open for only 30 minutes Wednesday afternoon before RCMP blocked off vehicle and pedestrian access to Royal Crescent. About two dozen advocates and low-income Maple Ridge residents had set up the overdose prevention site on the same property as the city’s only modular housing project.

Photos and video footage of the incident were posted on social media Wednesday.

This development is the latest example of authorities and anti-poverty activists coming to blows over low-barrier and harm-reduction initiatives in Maple Ridge. In March, the city, fire department and RCMP evicted a tent city that had become ground zero for tensions over increasing homelessness in the city, located 45 minutes outside Vancouver.

Residents and advocates alike agree attitudes in Maple Ridge are particularly hostile toward people experiencing homelessness, but none have been able to articulate why.

“The truth is that in those climates, vulnerable people are in a worse place. Poor people are more likely to be pushed into solitude where there is greater risk of overdose deaths than places like Vancouver or Victoria,” said Drury.

“The provinces need to recognize it’s in those more difficult places, more hostile places, that OPS are more needed than ever.”

Maple Ridge Mayor Mike Morden has loudly opposed the province’s plan to build emergency modular housing in his city.

In April, he told Star Vancouver that, while he personally opposes supervised injection sites, he was open to conversations about having a government-sanctioned one created in Maple Ridge.

When asked Thursday whether he stood by these views, Morden responded with an email, writing, “I do not support anything illegal or unregulated, including safe injection and overdose prevention sites. There is a process to follow, and (the city) must have the right to be partners at the table.”

Morden acknowledged that while he may oppose them personally, overdose prevention sites are part of the harm-reduction model and the overall four-pillar approach to addictions that he endorses.

“We are mindful that harm reduction is one of the four pillars,” including prevention, treatment and enforcement, Morden wrote. “All four pillars must be present and operating in conjuction with each other.”

He said the city is currently working to build a community safety plan in consultation with key stakeholders including Fraser Health and B.C. Housing.

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On Wednesday afternoon, lawyers from Pivot Legal Society tried to persuade authorities to allow the overdose prevention site to stay, but only hours later — it was still light out — Drury and others started taking down the tent. BC Housing confirmed it had requested RCMP attend and ask protesters to leave. Police officers indicated they would start making arrests and charging individuals for mischief if the advocates did not leave the premises.

“BC Housing is dedicated to providing safe and secure housing for those in need and provides support services to those living in modular supportive housing,” a spokesperson told Star Vancouver.

“We also take our commitment to neighbours and the community seriously. One of our goals with any supportive housing project is to reduce disturbances in the area as much as possible, which is why we can’t allow this site to operate here.”

Drury is no stranger to being arrested — he has been arrested twice in Maple Ridge during the tent city eviction in March — but he and the other organizers decided to pack up in order to ensure their harm-reduction supplies were not confiscated, which would have prevented them from setting up elsewhere again later.

In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for Fraser Health did not answer Star Vancouver’s question of whether the health authority was considering the advocates’ demand for an overdose prevention site.

“Fraser Health supports harm-reduction practices such as overdose prevention services, Take Home Naloxone and needle distribution,” the email read.

The spokesperson also said outreach workers from Rain City visit Maple Ridge and provide overdose prevention services, as does the Salvation Army shelter. However, people cannot consume drugs inside the shelter; no drugs or alcohol are allowed on site.

Drury said drug users in Maple Ridge don’t have anywhere to go to use drugs in a formal, supervised setting — unless they are tenants at one of two supportive housing projects, Alouette Heights and the modular housing location at Royal Crescent.

Earlier this spring, Star Vancouver spent several days with Maple Ridge residents experiencing homelessness and observed them consuming drugs in several locations, including in a parking lot and behind an apartment building. The drug users told Star Vancouver finding privacy to safely use drugs was a constant challenge.

Data from the BC Coroners Office shows the majority of overdose deaths happen inside, where people are isolated and there are no bystanders to help.

A study published Wednesday in the journal Addiction shows the death toll from illicit drug overdoses would have likely been twice as high if widespread harm reduction strategies had not been employed.

Researchers looked at the impact of the take-home naloxone program, as well as addictions treatment, overdose prevention sites and supervised consumption sites.

The study used data spanning the period between April 2016, when B.C. declared a public health emergency, and December 2017.

Researchers found that, combined, harm-reduction efforts in B.C. can be credited with preventing more than 3,000 overdose deaths.

Mike Irvine, a post-doctoral fellow at the BCCDC who worked on the study, said a single overdose prevention site might reverse a number of overdoses each week or month, but by helping reduce the overall likelihood of overdose in the first place, and connecting people to health-care services, the positive impacts are magnified.

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