OPINION
By Ian Pattison
The column has been updated with new information.
Politicians say the dumbest things. When those stupidities lead to policies based on misinformation or sheer stubbornness, our laughter turns to concern.
Take, for example, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who made this nonsense about the opioid crisis program with supervised drug injection sites:
“It’s the worst thing that can ever happen to a community,” he said this week, five years after his government approved 17 such sites, including one in Thunder Bay, where the death rate from toxic drugs is comparable to almost anywhere else in the country.
He then ordered the closure of ten of these plants, including the one in Thunder Bay. Not only is his reasoning flawed, it also contradicts the expert advice he sought to tackle this terrible problem head-on.
Ford is facing hostility from local politicians who are themselves facing hostility from frontline health workers trying to stem the rise in overdose deaths. Instead, things are getting worse. Last year, more than 2,500 people in Ontario died from toxic drug overdoses.
To be clear, much of the problem is caused by “toxic” drugs, concoctions mixed by unscrupulous manufacturers and dealers who are only interested in luring addicts for profit. If the drugs consumed on our streets were clean, there would be fewer drug-related deaths – but not none at all.
Amid debate over how to deal with the opioid death rate of one Canadian per hour, Ontario approved the safe injection sites that have saved countless lives, but Ford seems concerned about being seen as an enabler rather than a healer.
These sites do not distribute drugs. Instead, they provide addicts with a place to consume the drugs they have acquired under the supervision of trained professionals who test the drugs, provide sterile needles, and intervene if an overdose occurs. They also provide information on HIV and hepatitis prevention and referrals to health services and treatment programs.
IN THUNDER BAY, these programs are within reach. The secure facility, Path 525, which has treated more than 400 overdoses since it opened, is located in the basement of the NorWest Community Health Centre on Simpson Street.
Because Ogden Community School is less than 200 yards away, Ford’s new rules require it to be closed. As far as I know, neither the school board nor NorWest officials have publicly identified this proximity as a problem.
But Ford is standing firm. So firm that he and Health Minister Sylvia Jones ignored two reports they commissioned that recommended keeping existing drug consumption sites open, increasing funding to stabilize staffing levels, and hiring permanent security personnel to increase safety.
To hell with the experts. What do they know? We will not allow Ontario to become one giant drug den (the derisive term federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre uses for safe supply sites). That will only lead to more drug use and all the problems that come with it.
Alexandra Adamo, communications director for Jones, told CBC: “The crime data speaks for itself. In Thunder Bay, crime in the neighbourhood where the CTS (Consumer and Treatment Services) facility is slated to close has increased significantly compared to the rest of the city.”
However, crime has been on the rise on Simpson Street for many years. I asked the Metropolitan Police if crime around the Safe Site had increased since it opened. Spokesman Matt Vis replied: “There are many factors that contribute to the high rates of criminal activity reports and police calls being made in a particular area.”
In fact, more than 30 years of public health experience show that supervised injection sites do not lead to an increase in drug use or crime in the population. Here, too, the experts agree.
Gillian Kolla, an assistant professor at Memorial University’s medical school, has researched harm reduction programs for 15 years. She told The Globe and Mail that the locations of these sites are very well thought out.
“All the research shows that you should make the sites as accessible as possible. And one of the best ways to do that is to set them up in places where drug users already receive medical and social services. In densely populated urban areas, for example, that could be near a school.”
Child endangerment appears to be a non-issue around Path 525 and, as Kolla put it, “If you don’t have a supervised injection site, your whole community becomes an unsupervised injection site.”
Tasha Pelletier, a harm reduction social worker at NorWest and a recovering drug addict herself, said closing the safe space will certainly lead to more overdoses and deaths in the community, which are becoming more common due to the increasingly contaminated drug supply.
Case in point: On Tuesday, the county health department issued a “drug alert” noting that a substance sold as turquoise fentanyl was tested and found to be rat poison, leading to several hospitalizations. “Please get your drugs tested at Path 525.”
Jones insists everything will be OK. “People are not going to die,” she told Jack Hauen of The Trillium. “They’re going to get access to services.” Let’s remember she said that.
And one more thing: Without Path 525, “we’re going to see a lot more people out and about outdoors,” Pelletier told TBNewswatch. “Get ready, because that’s what’s going to happen once these sites are closed.”
We were warned.
The emergency services are already overwhelmed. And if you think the regional hospital emergency room is insanely overwhelmed right now, just wait.
Ontario is not excluding drug users. Instead, Minister Jones said the government needs to focus more on treatment and recovery and move away from harm reduction. She said Ontario will spend $378 million on 19 new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs, which will create 375 supported housing units and addiction therapy and treatment beds.
The 10 consumption sites closing next year will be asked to submit proposals to convert to HART centers, but Jones said they will not offer “safer” care, supervised drug use or even needle exchange programs – a recipe for disease. Nor can they change their location to be outside the 200-meter zone.
Juanita Lawson, executive director of NorWest Community Health, said they have the opportunity to apply and there will be a competitive process. Of course there will be. The Conservatives wouldn’t have it any other way. Is this another opportunity for the private sector?
The law also prevents existing sites from participating in what the federal government calls “safer supply” programs – programs in which medical professionals prescribe controlled substances as an alternative to the illegal drug supply. This prompted Ford to call the federal government “the biggest drug dealer in the entire country.” Again, a stupid exaggeration.
This is all very crude. But let’s take Ford and Jones at their word and see what happens with the HART centers – and how long it takes to build them and then staff them.
It is important to remember, however, that repeated, sometimes desperate, appeals by city and health officials over many years for sufficient resources to address the opioid crisis (and to staff our overwhelmed hospitals) have not been met with anything close to an adequate response.
THE LAST WORD goes to Pelletier, who overcame her drug addiction to help those who haven’t yet made it, and who believes that too many people don’t understand what’s really going on:
Drug addiction is “not a social problem,” she explained. “It is 100 percent a health problem. It is an illness. It is not a moral deficit.”
Ian Pattison is retired as editorial page editor of the Chronicle-Journal, but still shares his thoughts on current affairs. You can email him at [email protected].
