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“We’ve now successfully reversed about 6,000 overdoses, without a death, and I think that is a really key detail when the province is dealing with the prediction of close to 800 deaths this year in terms of overdoses from opioids.”

Insite’s record has prompted Victoria, Kelowna, Kamloops and Surrey to pursue similar facilities, and this week Vancouverannounced it had applied to Health Canada to open two more injection sites in existing health centres in the Downtown Eastside.

But even though Insite has been operating here for 13 years, Health Canada has not granted approvals to other locations, except the Dr. Peter Centre in January, which until then had been unofficially offering this service to a small community for years. The federal Liberals campaigned on embracing harm reduction, but have been slow to reverse a law enacted by the previous Conservative government that makes it very difficult to open new sites.

In a letter in August to Health Canada, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, B.C. Health Minister Terry Lake and other top medical officials complained the legislation was “flawed, mean-spirited and ineffective.” Health Minister Jane Philpott has so far only said the Tory law may have to be revisited if it is a barrier to communities that want these sites.

The Insite numbers tell the story of why other jurisdictions should not be delayed, Joe says, because all health officials want to prevent deaths.

• Overdoses at Insite have increased from 170 in 2004 (when Joe started keeping statistics) to 772 in 2015; in the first eight months of 2016 there were 508. Nurses were present to help in all cases. The use of naloxone, which reverses the effects of opioids, has increased at the same pace as the overdoses. Naloxone has been administered 2,028 times so far, nearly half of those in the last 2½ years.