Vancouver's first supervised injection site marks 20-year milestone

North America's first supervised injection site in Vancouver is celebrating 20 years in the Downtown Eastside.

On Thursday, staff, former lawyers and health professionals from Vancouver Coastal Health filled Insite to mark the milestone.

Since 2003, the facility says they've had 4,602,125 visits and 11,856 reversed overdoses.

Insite says there have been no deaths.

"I used this facility over 4,000 times in a 10-year time frame. I built connections and relationships with people here who didn't judge me for struggling," said Guy Felicella, a former Insite client.

Insite helped pave the way for facilities across the country, bringing controversy.

In 2011, the Supreme Court granted Insite an exemption to keep operating despite attempts to shut it down.

At the time, the Conservative government was opposed to the site and argued the spaces legitimatize and encourage drug addiction while calling for that money to be directed to treatment.

The court said they felt convinced that the experiment of the site was proven successful and that the site was saving lives without increasing crime in the surrounding area.

Over the years, similar spaces, like the overdose prevention site in Vancouver's Yaletown neighbourhood, have drawn criticism. The Yaletown site has faced scrutiny for its effects on the surrounding area, and the city has not renewed its lease.

"The community is facing a greater threat now than it was facing before," said Dr. Mark Lysyshyn, the deputy chief at Vancouver Coastal Health.

Lysyshyn went on to say that the site is limited in what it can do, but targeting the toxic drug crisis in the community needs to be a priority as people continue to die.

He is calling for a safe supply to help solve the issue, but says more needs to be done to provide a range of services.

Insite is seeing upwards of 400 people per day, and according to the facility, it has referred over 70,000 people to offsite services since 2003.