Supervised drug consumption sites in Kamloops and Kelowna to expand services

More changes are coming to the supervised illegal drug consumption sites in Kamloops and Kelowna.

Health Canada has now approved the expansion of services available for the mobile sites to allow the supervision of oral and intranasal consumption methods.

Dr. Trevor Corneil, Chief Medical Health Officer with Interior Health says in an email statement that the health authority is "very pleased" with Health Canada's approval.

"By expanding our mobile supervised consumption services to include oral and intranasal consumption, we are able to extend the reach of this life-saving service to a wider range of people at risk of overdose," he says. Oral consumption would be taking pills, while intranasal consumption refers to ingesting a drug by sniffing it.

Corneil says expanding the services is a priority for Interior Health and it's expected supervision for both methods will be available in the coming days.

The mobile units in Kamloops and Kelowna operated as overdose prevention sites and harm reduction centres when first approved.

In July, Health Canada approved the RV units to allow supervised consumption in the vehicles, while being monitored by Interior Health workers.

Interior Health told iNFOnews.ca earlier this month that from the beginning of June to the end of July, around 900 people had used the sites in Kamloops, while 2,400 had used the sites in Kelowna.

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