By Spencer Sterritt

Unauthorized overdose prevention site pops up to fill gaps in care

Sep 22, 2017 | 1:21 PM

NANAIMO — An unauthorized pop-up overdose prevention site in downtown Nanaimo drew ire from residents but support from users and community leaders.

Isabel Flood, an Island Health nurse, set up the tent site Wednesday night in Pioneer Square Park at the corner of Esplande and Nicol St. with help from harm reduction students and workers. It was taken down at midnight Wednesday.

Though Nanaimo’s overdose prevention site, run by Island Health, was only several blocks away, Flood said it was important to have the tent because it filled a service gap the official site cannot.

“You can’t smoke drugs at the overdose prevention site,” she told NanaimoNewsNOW. “Basically people who smoke or snort drugs are completely not accommodated. We had mostly people who smoked drugs.”

Flood emphasized she has no issue with the overdose prevention site and simply wanted to expand the amount of available help for the 28 users who visited the pop-up on Wednesday.

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“I don’t think those people would have been at the overdose prevention site that night, we captured them because they were smokers, a few had been barred from the (Island Health) site, we’re very low barrier and it’s standalone, all those things we think Nanaimo needs. I think we filled a need that night the overdose prevention site can’t.”

Questions about the pop-up filled several locally focused Facebook forums, about why the service was needed, how it affected Nanaimo’s reputation and concerns about the location, right by the busy Island Highway as it cuts through downtown.

Flood conceded the location wasn’t ideal given how busy the roads are and said the next pop-up will likely be in a different location downtown.

“People use right there all the time on that patch of grass. I would rather people using right where we are, with us who can deal with their drug issues, than not. I don’t have a problem with it being central and visible.”

Several comments reflected concerns about children seeing the site.

“I have children too and I would rather know there are drug users behind a tent using with people who are making sure they’re not going to overdose, rather than in my face, or in a doorway or alley I’m passing downtown,” Flood said. “If I ever had a child with an addiction problem I would not want their problem hidden away from the world.”

Flood added the pop-up was well received and supported by community members with the Nanaimo Association for Community Living and the group Moms Stop the Harm.

“We don’t apologize for the central location and the visibility of the tent. That’s about raising awareness and ending the stigma.”

Dr. Paul Hasselback, medical health officer with Island Health, said it would be ideal if the overdose crisis in Nanaimo wasn’t so dire it required unauthorized pop-up sites, but Island Health is receptive to the message it sent.

Island Health is currently adjusting their application to upgrade the overdose prevention site to a sanctioned supervised consumption site, which would allow users to ingest drugs under supervision, not just inject them.

However, allowing users to smoke drugs at an official site is a challenge Dr. Hasselback said many are grappling with.

“We’re seeing more and more associated with some sort of lit product being inhaled and we need to come up with a way of providing a safer environment for that to occur.”

The first application for a supervised consumption site was rejected by Nanaimo City Council after members of the community voiced their concerns about social disorder they believe was caused by the current site on Wesley St.

Hasselback said Island Health is meeting with City planning groups throughout the fall to find a solution.

According to the latest statistics, Island Health’s site saved more than 30 people in its first six months and 24 people fatally overdosed by the end of July. 

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit