FUTURE?
book The Globalisation of Addiction
showed that a major cause of opioid
addiction among the indigenous
populations of Canada was the
westernisation of communities
through forced disconnection from
land, culture and community in
order for them to assimilate. This
disconnection from their heritage,
along with growing social and
economic inequality between
settlers and natives, created a
catalyst for opioid addiction among
Canada’s indigenous communities.
Canada’s problem, however,
goes far wider than the indigenous
population. Rising house prices in
big cities are adding to a growing
number of homeless who turn
to drugs to try to find an escape
from their difficult circumstances,
and Canada’s sub-zero winter
temperatures mean many people
move to the country’s most
western city, Vancouver, where
it rarely snows and winters are
comparatively mild.
T
While Canada had the second
highest consumption of prescription
opiates per head of population
after the US, according to the 2015
Canadian tobacco, alcohol and drugs
survey, only 2 per cent of those who
used prescription opioids reported
misusing them – this can be
attributed to a universal healthcare
system not geared to shareholder
profits. Canada’s problem is one that
is much more complicated, with a
range of factors which date back to
the days of colonialism.
Extensive research carried out
by psychologist Bruce Alexander
of Simon Frasier University for his
WWW.DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS.COM
he book Fighting for
Space by journalist
Travis Lupik, who has
covered Vancouver’s
opioid crisis since its
inception, tells the
story of the activists who fought and
broke the law by being the first to
hand out clean syringes, unofficially
open safe injection sites and form
a drug users’ union which later led
to the creation of Insite, Vancouver’s
first government sanctioned
supervised consumption site.
Made possible through
an exemption from Canada’s
Controlled Drugs and Substances
Act, Insite receives on average 700-
800 visitors a day – since 2003 there
have been more than 3.6m clients
and 6,440 lives saved through
overdose intervention on site. Insite
serves not only as a metaphorical
pillar of the Downtown Eastside
community but also as part of the
four-pillar drug strategy the City of
Vancouver has put into place, the
four pillars being harm reduction,
prevention, treatment and
enforcement.
Alongside offering safe spaces
for people to take their drugs,
Insite acts as a community space
where people can socialise. There
is no limit to how long clients can
stay despite the high numbers of
people using the service, many of
whom may be homeless. Chill out
rooms with complimentary juice
and coffee allow clients to relax in
what for many will be their only
opportunity during the day to be in
a comfortable indoor space, and this
community-focused atmosphere
is vital to the success of Insite and
second-generation supervised
injection sites which opened after
the declaration of a public health
emergency by the BC Centre for
Disease Control in 2016.
This was in response to rising
rates of drug overdose and deaths,
partly caused by increasing use
of fentanyl. The rise of fentanyl in
North America points to a huge
incoming problem for us in Europe.
As was the case in the US, opioid
prescriptions in the UK rose sharply
between 1998 and 2016, which
could potentially trigger a chain
of events that could lead to more
people reverting to illicit opioids,
and increased fentanyl imports.
Lack of safe injection sites in
the UK means we have a gaping
hole in the services we provide for
people struggling with addiction,
leaving many with no choice but to
consume illicit substances unsafely.
The current system is designed to
help those who are actively seeking
to rehabilitate themselves, with
counselling and needle exchange
available to users alongside
methadone treatment. However
these services are only available as
part of a recovery process, leaving
many people trying to score outside
of the system to prevent withdrawal
symptoms.
The desire for immediate change
is not shared among the whole
community of people struggling
with drug problems – safety nets
need to be available to those who
are not quite ready to seek the
help of an establishment that
Rising house
prices in big cities
are adding to a
growing number
of homeless who
turn to drugs to try
to find an escape
from their difficult
circumstances,
and Canada’s
sub-zero winter
temperatures mean
many people move
to the country’s
most western city,
Vancouver, where
it rarely snows
and winters are
comparatively mild.
has previously demonised and
criminalised them for a problem
that is out of their control, often
stemming from the need for a
coping mechanism to help deal with
internalised trauma.
Without fast action, we will see
a continuous upwards trajectory in
deaths related to fentanyl all over
the UK, especially in areas with
growing economic inequality. By the
time politicians act, the problem will
already be out of control.
Jussi Lynch Grut is a student and
freelance journalist studying at the
London College of Communication
FEBRUARY 2020 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • 9