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🇨🇦 Canada /Health & Science

Vancouver drug advocates open pop-up overdose prevention sites

From Global News · () English

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Neighbours near a cancelled overdose prevention site in downtown Vancouver say unauthorized pop-up harm-reduction tables have appeared outside the vacant building.
  • Business owners and Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim raised public-safety concerns, while residents and advocates said supervised services could reduce public drug use and overdoses.
  • Vancouver Coastal Health said neither it nor RainCity Housing knew about the pop-up operation in advance.

A folding table offering water and harm-reduction supplies appeared on a Vancouver sidewalk days after the provincial government cancelled plans for an overdose prevention site at 900 Helmcken Street.

I just feel like the wool’s being pulled over our eyes and if these popups are happening, then what is the public safety

· Denise MeikleThe Vancouver business owner questioned the public-safety implications of unauthorized pop-up services.

The unexpected service unsettled some neighbours. Denise Meikle, who owns Salon Origins, said she noticed the table on Hornby Street on Aug. 29. She said she supports lifesaving services but worries about the street disorder she sees after people use drugs. “I just feel like the wool’s being pulled over our eyes and if these popups are happening, then what is the public safety,” she told Global News.

Meikle said residents absorb the aggression and violence that can follow drug use. Jens “Spoons” Petersen, who lives at the nearby Murray Hotel, described the table differently. He said it provided water and harm-reduction supplies to people who needed them, and criticized the way residents in the neighbourhood are labelled. “People in this neighbourhood, they just label us, they don’t even give us a chance to be better,” Petersen said. “If we had a place to go, then they wouldn’t see us.”

I’m all for harm reduction. However, what we absorb after, when people are coming out of their high, is the aggression, the violence

· Denise MeikleMeikle explained why she supports harm reduction but remains concerned about street disorder.

Petersen said he was saddened by the cancellation of the planned site, arguing that it could keep drug users off the streets and provide a safe, supervised place to use clean supplies.

People in this neighbourhood, they just label us, they don’t even give us a chance to be better

· Jens “Spoons” PetersenA resident near the proposed site criticized stigma toward people who use drugs.

RainCity Housing, which holds the lease for 900 Helmcken Street, said it has focused on outreach, while other community groups have set up tables in response to a substantial local need. Vancouver Coastal Health said RainCity alerted it to people independently distributing harm-reduction supplies near the building, and that neither organization had advance notice. Mayor Ken Sim called the pop-ups inappropriate and reckless. Green councillor Pete Fry said the public-health need for such a service was real, even though the cancelled site had also aimed to address public drug use and disorder.

As a health issue, they’re probably right to have a pop up OPS because people are overdosing

· Pete FryThe Vancouver councillor acknowledged the public-health rationale for the pop-up service.
About this summary

Originally published by Global News. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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