SUDU Opens Unsanctioned Safe Inhalation Site to Respond to Rising Fatalities in Surrey
For Immediate Release – Semiahmoo, q̓ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), Kwantlen, Qayqayt and Tsawwassen First Nations (Surrey BC)
At 9 p.m. this evening, the Surrey Union of Drug Users’ members opened an unsanctioned safe consumption site to respond to rising fatalities in Surrey on City Parkway & 107A Avenue in Whalley. SUDU members state that they have opened this site to fill the void created by government inaction during this public health emergency. Surrey only has one safe inhalation site which closes at 9 p.m., despite having the second highest number of toxic drug supply related deaths in all of B.C.
Since April 2016, more than 1,697 people have died from toxic unregulated drug poisonings in Surrey alone. Between January 1st and April 30th 2024, 67 people died from unregulated drug toxicity in the city.
SUDU is calling on the provincial and municipal governments to abide by the 2016 Ministerial Order 488 calling for overdose prevention sites in every community that needs one, and to:
Ensure there are supervised inhalation services with extended hours.
Open additional life-saving sites throughout Surrey, particularly in Newton and Guildford.
Purchase land to open a permanent site. The lease for the existing site is up in November of this year, and any significant closures or reduction in services will put more people at risk of dying.
“The unregulated drug supply is increasingly volatile and dangerous. In June, there were reports of the highly potent tranquilizer “medetomidine” being sold in high concentrations as fentanyl in Surrey. The government is refusing to undercut the poisoned supply and provide regulated alternatives as urged by B.C.’s expert death review panel, while also failing to open inhalation sites as per B.C.’s Auditor General’s report. That leaves it to us to take action, because unlike them, we cannot tolerate one more person’s death.”- Gina Egilson, SUDU Board Member
The governments’ failure to open safe inhalation sites in Surrey is disproportionately impacting the South Asian community. Between 2015 and 2018, Fraser Health reported there were 186 fatal overdoses per 1,000 overdoses among South Asian people compared to 110 fatal overdoses per 1,000 overdoses among non-South Asian people, suggesting that overdoses among South Asian people are less likely to be reversed or responded to. The planned safe consumption site for Newton was abandoned last year, leaving a majority-South Asian neighbourhood without any life saving services.
“The deaths and struggles of South Asian people who use drugs have gone largely neglected in this eight-year long public health emergency. In addition to the complete lack of services in Newton, there is a broader issue of a lack of cultural safety and effort to overcome language barriers to save lives across all types of existing services. It is not stigma that is killing our community members - it is a series of policy choices and structural conditions that exclude and marginalize racialized people.”
- Harnek Bal, SUDU South Asian Committee
SUDU’s site will permit inhalation use and run from 9 pm to 1 am on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. At the site, people can access sterile equipment, basic first aid response, wound care, and volunteers will respond immediately should someone experience an overdose from the unregulated street supply.
Where: City Parkway & 107A Avenue, Surrey
When: 9 pm - 1 am on July 9th, 2024 and July 10th, 2024
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