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“I think our goal for youth and for everyone living with substance-use disorder is to try and connect people with treatment and recovery as soon as possible.”

Darcy responded positively to the report and said her ministry wants to ensure that youth suffering from addiction are able to access a wide array of barrier-free services, where there is a focus on prevention and early intervention.

“I totally appreciate that the harm-reduction piece is the piece that will garner the most attention out of this report, but the representative spoke to a wide array of services that are needed in order to support youth living with substance-use issues, and that’s really where our focus is as a government,” she said.

Darcy said the ministry is working to rapidly expand its network of Foundry hubs for at-risk youth ages 12 to 24. The seven sites cater to their mental health and substance use issues and help them access counselling and treatment. Four more hubs have been announced.

B.C. has several supervised-consumption and overdose-prevention sites where drug users can inject and in some cases snort or ingest substances in the presence of people trained to reverse overdoses.

None cater to youth, however, some will let them in. In the Vancouver Coastal Health region, for example, youth 16 to 19 can use the sites but must agree to be assessed by a nurse who may defer access and instead make referrals to other supports based on their history, educational needs and medical and social supports.