The Federal government came out with new pilot projects on how to handle the opioid crisis Tuesday.
One of the governments plans is to spend $1.5 million to teach more doctors on safe use drug practices, so more safe injection sites can be opened.
Northern Health Medical Officer Dr. Andrew Gray agrees with the government when it comes to these types of sites.
“The research has been very clear on there effectiveness. There’s never been a death from an overdose in one of these sites, they’re prevented thousands of overdose deaths. And they also, beyond that, provide other harm reduction services that prevent HIV and other infections.”
Dr. Gray wanted to add there is one overdose prevention site in Prince George which is similar to a supervised injection site, but these aren’t available in remote communities.
“The only limitation of these services really is that they don’t reach people in a very large geographic area. They’re very local. So they make a lot of sense in urban centres where there’s a relatively high number of people concentrated who are at risk of overdose.”
Northern Health has been using their own strategy such as education and awareness, distributing naloxone and increasing access to addiction treatment.
They’ve also been monitoring the situation in case it gets worse.
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