New safe injection site prepares for opening in Surrey, B.C.

SURREY, B.C. — Drug users will start injecting their own heroin or other illicit substances at a new supervised injection site opening this week in Surrey, B.C., in an effort to curb a crisis in overdose deaths.

SafePoint will be British Columbia’s first such site outside of Vancouver that allows people to shoot up drugs under medical supervision while they are linked up with other health and social services.

A similar service will be incorporated into an existing clinic later this month in Surrey, which has had the second-highest number of overdose fatalities in the province after Vancouver.

SafePoint comes 14 years after the groundbreaking start of Insite, the safe injection site in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, which was launched to prevent the spread of HIV.

Fraser Health chief medical health officer Dr. Victoria Lee says she’s disappointed that Health Canada did not approve the site to allow people to also snort drugs or take them orally.

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She says Health Canada is still considering that possibility.

The Canadian Press