September 11, 2017 - 11:38 am

The debate over safe injection sites in King County is a hot topic. The model for such sites is Insite.  The first such site in North America, it’s located in Vancouver, British Columbia and offers a room with harm reduction supplies and staff who know how to resuscitate people after an overdose.

The podcast, Cited, dives into the story of another type of service,  Vancouver Canada’s Crosstown Clinic.  Here people are actually given government funded, prescription heroin.  Thousands of people visit supervised injection facilities.  The patients at Crosstown are part of a much smaller club.

Part 1 – We meet some of the clinic’s patients

Part 2 – Hear how patient Kevin Thompson survived before the clinic opened

Part 3 – We hear about Crosstown Clinic’s ingenuity

Part 4 – Discover a controversial study using heroin’s cousin hydromorphone to treat patients

Part 5 – We hear what became of the lawsuit against Canada’s federal government to allow treatment with injectable drugs

Producers Gordon Katic, Sam Fenn, Alexander B. Kim, and Travis Lupick

Photo by Travis Lupick