Drug Users Call for Safe Supply of Heroin and Cocaine, and Show How It’s Done

published on June 23, 2020 by Jesse Winter in The Tyee

A new drug-user advocacy group in Vancouver says the safe supply of prescription narcotics must include pharmaceutical-grade heroin and cocaine and — to kickstart the effort — they’ve started giving those drugs away for free themselves.

Today, dozens of people who use drugs marched in the city’s Downtown Eastside and set up an overdose prevention site at the corner of East Hastings Street and Dunlevy Avenue, where they distributed free doses of cocaine that had been tested for fentanyl, carfentanyl, benzodiazepines and other dangerous contaminants.

Organizers had planned to distribute up to 200 doses of free heroin as well, but existing supply lines have become so contaminated that they couldn’t find any.

“It really speaks to the level of contamination that’s out there on the street,” said Jeremy Kalicum, one of the demonstration’s organizers…

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