(SHELBY THEVENOT / iNFOnews.ca)

Interior Health is planning a permanent supervised drug consumption site in Kamloops.

The health authority is working to establish a permanent indoor supervised consumption site but not many details are available yet.

More details are expected to be released "in the coming months," according to an emailed statement from an Interior Health spokesperson.

Kamloops currently has a supervised consumption site available in an RV, which is operated by ASK Wellness. In 2017, the city council of the day endorsed Interior Health's plan to open what became the mobile site, which is regularly open at 6 Avenue and Seymour Street.

ASK Wellness does also offer small overdose prevention sites, with one at its Tranquille Road office.

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Supervised consumption sites are used as a tool to reduce overdose deaths in B.C., and they've been largely successful in that regard. They are also designed to offer additional medical and counselling services, education, treatment referrals and access to opioid agonist treatment.

Interior Health says along with reducing overdose deaths, the sites reduce public consumption, reduce the risk of disease transmission, result in less discarded needles and increase the use of detox and treatment services.

In 2021, B.C. broke the previous record death record in the ongoing opioid crisis which was set just the year before.

More than 2,200 people died of overdoses in B.C. last year, most of which using opioids, while street supply is commonly found to be contaminated with substances that may be unexpected to the buyer.

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Interior Health recently issued a drug alert for the entire region, urging users to have their drugs tested. Samples were shown to have four to five times the potency of fentanyl content, along with additional substances mixed in.

"We also partner with ASK to provide drug testing in the community and encourage everyone to have their drugs tested as we continue to see toxic drugs circulating and high levels of overdose activity across the region," the Interior Health statement said.

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Of the 2,224 toxic drug-related deaths in B.C. last year, 77 were in Kamloops and 73 were in Kelowna, according to the annual B.C. Coroners Service report.

Fentanyl-related deaths in B.C. sky-rocketed in 2016 and have since accounted for more than 80% of overdose deaths in the province. That proportion remains high but has dipped slightly with methamphetamine-related deaths rising since 2017.

More than 63% of people who died due to drug toxicity were in their own residence in the Interior Health region between 2018 and 2021, which is 658 people. In that same period 12% were outside, according to the 2021 report.

Kelowna's first permanent supervised consumption site was established in the city's downtown last year, which was announced in March 2020.

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