Establishing comprehensive health services for drug users entails developing multiple sites that provide the full gamut of harm reduction supplies and a variety of service delivery options.

Services include fixed site needle exchanges, mobile needle exchanges, outreach services, peer distribution programs, and supervised consumption services. Ensuring 24/7 access to services and supplies in multiple locations throughout the city is essential.

Most importantly, people who use drugs must be involved in the development, delivery and evaluation of these services.

Victoria’s only fixed-site needle exchange was forced to close on May 31, 2008. Since this time, the Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA) has sanctioned mobile exchange services within a limited area. VIHA discontinued plans to open a centralized and accessible harm reduction services site on Pandora Street in June, 2008 and eliminated a potential fixed-site needle exchange in the Burnside-Gorge area in September, 2009.