B.C.’s Mental Health and Addictions Minister is touting a new overdose prevention team in Interior Health that she would like to see elsewhere.

Sheila Malcolmson had been asked on how the province can make drug-testing more widely available, and she suggested more details will be coming in next week’s budget.

“But, I will flag, the Integrated Treatment Teams that have just been initiated in the Interior Health Authority, are one of those examples of innovating and overcoming the barriers that have prevented some people from being able to access addictions treatment,” Malcolmson told reporters this morning.

The treatment teams were rolled out last month.

Malcolmson points out Kamloops is one of five cities with the service, which helps people who can’t access supervised consumption sites. She says reasons can include challenges with childcare and transportation, and living in rural and remote areas.

“And they are getting out and meeting people where they’re at. And particularly people who haven’t physically been able to walk into a supervised consumption site, for all the services associated with preventing overdoses.”

Today marks five years sine the B.C. government declared a provincial health emergency over a toxic drug supply. Since then, 7,072 people have died, including 219 people in Kamloops.

Also today, Malcolmson has announced the B.C. government is in the process of making a formal application to Ottawa to decriminalize personal possession of drugs. It would require an exemption from federal drug laws.