[2] CAST attempts to reduce homelessness and crime by replacing illegal opiates with pharmaceutical heroin, hydromorphone or other substitutes.
For 15 years, Vancouver had the only supervised injection site in North America: Insite.
CAST was developed by Mayor Sam Sullivan as a result of his experience with the overdose crisis of the 1990s.
[8] After Sullivan did not receive his party's endorsement to run for re-election, he focused on raising funds to implement the SALOME research trials.
Despite the success of the research no program was instituted by the time the fentanyl crisis of late 2015 hit the province.