Vancouver's chief medical officer recommends compassion club model to reduce illicit drug deaths

Dr. Patricia Daly takes recommendations to city hall, reminds councillors opioid crisis still raging
CBC News (Canada)
Friday, October 22, 2021

canada safe supplyVancouver's head doctor said more headway needs to be made on the opioid crisis in British Columbia and one way to stop people from dying sooner rather than later is to move toward a compassion club model for distributing safe drugs in the city. Patricia Daly, the chief medical officer for Vancouver Coastal Health, made the recommendation to Vancouver City Council during a presentation on the current illicit drug death situation. Daly said she spoke to city policy makers to reiterate the province is still battling a public health emergency other than COVID-19 — one that has killed 3,000 people between January 2020 and July 2021, compared to 1,800 who died from the novel coronavirus in the same period.