A task force wants the Seattle area to become home to the first supervised injection site in the United States and experts are looking to Vancouver as a model.

Last year, 229 people died from drug overdoses in King County, which includes Seattle, home to about two million people.

"It's super alarming," Brad Finegood, co-chair of the Heroin and Prescription Task Force, told On The Coast host Stephen Quinn.

"We've seen the trend steadily go up over time. Any time you have a situation where you have a public health epidemic like we do, people dying of drug overdoses, it's something we need to take hold of and take action on quickly."

Finegood says authorities have seen fentanyl on Seattle's streets but aren't affected by it to the same extent as Vancouver, yet, "but we know it's on its way."

He says InSite is a "foundational" example for supervised injection sites, because there have been no deaths there. He says it breaks the grip of isolation and connects people with other services.

"It's beyond amazing," he said.

'That's somebody's sibling; that's somebody's parent'

Finegood says reaction to the call for supervised injection services has been mixed.

"It's never easy to recommend something where people have some deep moral beliefs," he said. "But we've also seen a ton of public support."

For Finegood, seeking a supervised injection site has a personal dimension. His brother died of an overdose 12 years ago on New Year's Day.

"Knowing today or tomorrow, somebody's going to die of a drug overdose in our community, that's somebody's brother, that's somebody's sibling, that's somebody's parent," he said.

"We need to be able take action as fast as possible and do what we need to do in order to keep people from dying and give people a chance to recover."

In addition to calling for the injection sites, the task force has expanded availability of the anti-overdose drug naloxone in the area and is also calling for more addiction treatment services.

With files from CBC Radio One's On The Coast

To hear the full story, click the audio labelled: Seattle task force wants to use Insite as model for first supervised injection site in U.S.