Vancouver Supports Campaign for ‘Pups of Compassion’ to Sell Safer Heroin, Cocaine and Methamphetamine | The Canadian News

The Vancouver city council voted Thursday to back the “compassion clubs” initiative to supply safer drugs to drug users in the city.

The motion, which passed with unanimous support, will see the city endorse a request from the Vancouver Area Drug User Liberation Front and the Vancouver Area Drug Users Network for a federal exemption from the Controlled Substances and Drugs Act.

The groups seek to make use of the same legal exemption to Canadian drug laws that allowed Insite, Canada’s first supervised injection site, to operate.

Coun. Jean Swanson, who brought the motion to council, said the initiative was a realistic measure to address deaths from toxic drugs in British Columbia.

“It is the leading cause of death among young people under 40,” he said. “We have to stop him. They are six people a day; it’s too much.”

More than 1,000 people died in British Columbia in the first half of the year from suspected illicit drug toxicity, according to the BC Coroners Service, and the number of deaths has risen dramatically since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The compassion club model was historically used to distribute marijuana to people with cancer and other chronic pain conditions prior to the legalization of cannabis.

In this case, it focuses on a peer-run facility that sells pharmaceutical grade drugs such as heroin, cocaine, or methamphetamine to drug users over the age of 18.

The motion was amended to insist that the drugs be purchased from a legal source.

The concept is part of a broader push for the “safe supply” of illegal drugs, which has been endorsed by researchers, public health officials, and even the British Columbia government, amid rising deaths from toxic drugs.

But Swanson said the way the province is currently willing to offer access to clean drugs, through prescribing alternatives to illegal drugs, is not working.

“Their methods of providing it don’t work for everyone, they only work for a small minority of people,” he said.

“We need to save lives. If you look at all the people who supported the motion yesterday, they were people who use drugs, who are experts in this, they were doctors who treat people who use drugs, they were scientists who study drug use and what happens, they were community groups . that establish programs that serve drug users. Vancouver Coastal Health supported this plan. “

In addition to supporting the Section 56 request, Thursday’s motion will see Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart write to the federal government and express his support.

Stewart is scheduled to meet with federal officials on Monday, and Swanson said he is also expected to raise the issue at that time.