Residents are against the expansion of drug use sites into Vancouver's suburbs

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British Columbia's rampant drug deaths have left public health officials in uncharted territory more than once. It became the first province to decriminalize small amounts of hard drugs for personal use in 2022, about two decades after Vancouver opened the first supervised injection site in North America. But as overdoses increase in some British Columbia cities, there is disagreement in one city about how to address it.

In Richmond, one of British Columbia's largest cities with a population of 230,000, city council chambers became rowdy this week as an entire public gallery of residents opposed a plan for staff to study whether a safe consumption site for drug users would be feasible in the community. The plan was adopted Tuesday, but the effort got off to a rocky start, with few officials and agencies stepping up to defend it.

More than a hundred residents signed up to speak at the meeting, some in tears, others shouting. The city's 22-year-old mayor, Malcolm Brodie, competed with residents for control of the chamber, and tensions escalated to shouting matches in the hallway, where Mounties intervened.

[Read: Canada Decriminalizes Opioids and Other Drugs in British Columbia]

Residents expressed fears that the facility would disrupt the community and cause drug-related crime and disorder.

“We don't feel safe, and I don't want Richmond to turn into another Hastings or Chinatown,” a resident of Swimmy She told Council, referring to two Vancouver neighborhoods hit hard by the opioid crisis, where drug use is open ubiquitous.

The division over the plan is “very concerning to me,” said Kash Heed, one of the council members who introduced the motion. He added that politics and community strife have “created such an ugly situation now, regarding something that we want to do for our most vulnerable population, who are dying in tents, or staying home and dying alone , because of the stigmatization. attached to their acute drug addiction.”

Last year, 26 people died in Richmond from drug use. There were a record 2,511 deaths in the province, and paramedics responded to more than 42,000 emergency drug calls, a 25 percent increase from the previous year. Most deaths occurred in Vancouver.

[Read: Fentanyl From the Government? A Vancouver Experiment Aims to Stop Overdoses.]

The Council motion states that the safe consumption location could benefit the city by reducing drug-related crime and improving addiction care.

But false information, including a claim that the site would supply drugs, has spread in social media groups, Mr. Heed, a former provincial security minister and police officer, told me.

Cities do not have the authority to create safe consumption locations; that falls under the province. The plan approved by the Council on Tuesday is to study the establishment of a safe consumption site in the hospital area and seek approval from provincial authorities.

Earlier this week, provincial Health Minister Adrian Dix lent his support to the plan, pointing to the “remarkable” safety performance of these facilities and the evidence that they save lives. But there is little support outside the Council for a new safe consumption site in Richmond.

Vancouver Coastal Health, a regional health authority serving Richmond, said in statements to local news media that a standalone safe injection site would not be the “most appropriate service” because it works best in places with high concentrations of drug users.

Prime Minister David Eby of the New Democratic Party and some members of the Legislative Assembly representing Richmond offered no support for the council's plan when questioned about it at a news conference. Instead, he cited Vancouver Coastal Health's position.

The provincial government has introduced legislation to ban drug use in public in an extensive list of areas, such as parks, beaches, playgrounds and areas near workplaces. Under the legislation, which would come into effect on January 1, police officers would direct users to other areas. But a province's Supreme Court judge issued a temporary injunction against the ban until March, ruling it threatened to cause “irreparable harm” to drug users by pushing them into less safe areas to use drugs. The province has appealed against the decision.

Safe consumption sites have recently faced public complaints and lawsuits filed by community members. Last summer, Vancouver Closed such a location after two years of operation. This week, members of a Toronto neighborhood asked the court to approve a class action against a safe consumption site where a mother was killed by a stray bullet seven months ago; a community health worker at the facility was among those arrested.

More powerful drugs worsen the overdose crisis for frontline workers. Last week, the mayor of Belleville, in eastern Ontario, declared a state of emergency after 23 overdose deaths in two days, caused in part by the presence of the animal tranquilizer xylazine in the drug supply. During a press conference, he called on the provincial government to provide money to support detox facilities.

“The scale of these problems and the pressure our emergency services are feeling has reached a breaking point,” he said.

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Vjosa Isai is a reporter and researcher for The New York Times in Toronto.

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