The lessons we can learn from Vancouver drug consumption room

“Fentanyl hitting Glasgow is a ticking time bomb,” Guy says. He sees harm reduction measures as the first line of defence.

Guy Felicella at Insite

Eight minutes had passed. Guy Felicella lay motionless on the floor of the supervised consumption site, his body stiff. He wasn’t breathing. A nurse had given him a naloxone injection, wedged a breathing tube down his throat and placed a mask over his face to give him oxygen. It was his sixth overdose in nine months. The team had done everything they could, the only thing left to do was wait.

“I only remember opening my eyes, and on this particular time when I opened my eyes the nurse was visibly emotional,” he says. He asked her why she was crying. “Because I care,” she said.