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FORUM: Government ignores own experts, closes injection sites (Sept. 2024)

November 8th, 2024 · No Comments

Doug Ford chooses political gain over public health

By Jessica Bell

In a cynical move, the Conservatives have announced they will shutter ten consumption and treatment sites in Ontario, including the Kensington Overdose Prevention Site operated by The Neighbourhood Group. Any site 200 meters from schools or daycares will be banned from operating.

The government also plans to restrict needle exchanges, so used needles cannot be replaced with clean ones, and ban municipalities from asking the Federal government to permit the regulated and controlled distribution of safe drugs to people who are addicted.

Ontario says they’re banning consumption sites near schools and daycares to reduce crime and stop needles from being near children. This is not true. If it were true, consumption sites would be permitted to relocate, but the Conservatives have banned new sites from opening anywhere.

Minister of Health Sylvia Jones was asked by reporter Jack Hauen from The Trillium if research had been done about “how many people will die as a result of this decision.” 

“Jack, people are not going to die,” the minister replied, “they’re going to get access to service.”

The minister’s comment is as dangerous as encouraging a drowning person to learn how to swim, instead of throwing them a life jacket.

This government has made a political decision to win votes by scapegoating vulnerable people. This has nothing to do with evidence.

Municipalities, hospitals, nurses, public health experts, and even two provincial government commissioned reports recommend keeping consumption sites open. To address crime and cleanliness, staff recommended hiring more staff, including security, not closing sites altogether.

Consumption sites are about reducing harm and saving lives. A CTV News review of federal government data shows that the sites, on average, help more than three people survive overdoses each day in Toronto.

Since opening in 2019, the Kensington site provides a room for people to use substances with trained staff on hand to respond to overdoses, provide education and supplies, like clean needles, and connect people to healthcare, counselling and other essential services.

Given the toxicity of the drugs available on the street, evidence also supports permitting the distribution of a regulated safe supply as a method to reduce overdose deaths.

Drug use doesn’t just magically disappear if needle exchanges are banned and consumption and treatment sites are shut down. If consumption sites close, people will use drugs alone at home, in restaurant washrooms, on the street, and yes, in nearby school yards. There will be more needles discarded on the street. Diseases like HIV and Hepatitis C will spread. More people will end up in very busy emergency rooms, like Toronto Western. And far more people will die.

No one is saying consumption sites should operate in a vacuum. These sites are one part of a comprehensive evidence-based plan to address the hideously complicated challenge of drug use and addiction by keeping people alive and helping people with recovery.

When Premier Ford was asked why he was closing sites his government originally approved, the premier said it’s just his “personal opinion” that they don’t work. He said critics should be happy that he’s pouring $378 million into new treatment hubs—there will be 19 of them—and 375 supportive housing units.

This plan is like a little two-legged stool trying to support an elephant. The chair can’t do its job because it is missing a key plank, and it’s too little to deal with the enormity of Ontario’s drug addiction crisis. The statistics are horrific. According to Public Health Ontario, in 2022, 2531 people died of an overdose, there were 2044 hospitalizations, and 12,144 emergency room visits.

Ontario needs to meet people where they are and save lives in the short term while also investing far more in housing, treatment, and health care to help people recover and rebuild their lives in the medium and long-term. This is what health care experts are recommending. We all benefit from this compassionate and evidence-based approach. This is not the time for cheap politics.

Jessica Bell is the MPP for University-Rosedale and the Official Opposition’s Housing Critic. She can be reached at jbell@ndp.on.ca or 416-535-7206. 

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Tags: Annex · Columns · Opinion