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Vancouver Forced to Acknowledge ‘Unsanctioned’ Back Alley Injection Site

Looks like they're not getting shut down anytime soon.

It might not be legal, but there are some ground rules. Photo by Rafal Gerszak

When I first visited a back alley harm reduction tent in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside last month, officials were keeping quiet about the whole thing. At the time, tent co-founder Sarah Blyth said a few dozen people were coming by each day—some asking for water and hand sanitizer, others looking for a safe and dry place to inject drugs.

Responding to an epidemic of opiate overdoses in the neighbourhood, a small crew of volunteers has since seen tent visits grow to over 100 a day. They've handed out clean needles, swept sharps out of the back alley, and responded to several overdoses—all without asking permission to operate.

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Several weeks and a few close saves later, the City of Vancouver has finally acknowledged the tent. And so far, city, health care, and law enforcement officials have no plans to shut it down.

"This is not a sanctioned safe injection site," reads part of a City of Vancouver statement released Friday. One Vancouver Coastal Health spokesperson put it more bluntly: "It's not legal," Anna Marie D'Angelo told The Canadian Press.

Despite breaking some rules, the city has pledged to collaborate with police and "assess the risk of the unsanctioned overdose management site" from a distance.

Read More: This Back Alley Harm Reduction Tent Isn't Asking Permission to Operate

The latest back alley overdose happened late Saturday in "dark and stormy" conditions, Blyth told VICE. A volunteer injected the victim with the opiate-blocker naloxone, known by the trade name Narcan. "They had to give him three shots, which is a lot of Narcan," she said. "Thankfully he walked away from it."

With the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl showing up in 86 percent of street drugs and over 60 percent of overdose deaths across the province, the tent's volunteers say more street-level support is needed—both in Vancouver and other hard-hit communities. Blyth is planning to host a certified overdose response training this week, to teach more volunteers, some from other BC cities and towns, how to perform CPR and use naloxone.

Meanwhile, the do-it-yourself approach to the opiate crisis has gained a lot of traction both in Canada and abroad. "Someone from Boston just contacted me," tent co-founder Sarah Blyth told VICE. "They want to get a tent set up as soon as possible—they're having five to six people dying a day in Boston."

While Vancouver has always been a North American leader in harm reduction programs, it's tough to say how other cities would handle unsanctioned injection sites. Blyth is hopeful a hands-off approach will prevail. "There's been some incredible support behind us," she said. "I think people realize saving lives is a good thing, it's not a controversial thing, it's not an illegal thing."

Blyth set up a crowdfunder to cover supplies for the tent, which has been endorsed by former politicians, Centre for Disease Control employees and the parents of fentanyl overdose victims. By their own estimation, the crew have nearly raised enough money to keep things running for a full year.

Follow Sarah Berman on Twitter.