A visit to Vancouver's safe injection site
As California debates whether to allow safe injection sites, we go to Canada to see one that's been around for nearly 20 years.
Headlines From The Times · Denise Guerra, Shani O. Hilton, Mike Heflin, Kasia Broussalian, David Toledo, Shannon Lin, Jazmín Aguilera, Ashlea Brown, Angel Carreras, Carlos De Loera, Gustavo Arellano, Anita Chabria, Mark Nieto, Kinsee Morlan, Mario Diaz, Madalyn Amato
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Show Notes
Overdose deaths in the United States have risen rapidly during the pandemic. It’s a trend driven largely by the spread of fentanyl.
In California, the push to save lives and stop the fallout has led some activists and politicians to propose safe injection sites — places where people can take drugs with clean needles, without fear of arrest. There’s already one site like this operating in San Francisco.
But in Vancouver, Canada, there’s a neighborhood that has hosted a safe injection site for almost 20 years. In today’s episode, we go visit it.
Read the full transcript here.
Host: Gustavo Arellano
Guest: L.A. Times columnist Anita Chabria
More reading:
Column: Vancouver’s safe drug-use sites are wrenching to see. California should open them anyway
In a bid to stop overdose deaths, California could allow drug use at supervised sites
With overdose deaths rising, here’s how to test drugs for fentanyl