Health Canada approves immediate opening of a safe injection site in Toronto

But according to one of the founders of an unsanctioned pop-up site at Moss Park it's not enough to deal with the ongoing opioid crisis.

Thestar.com
Aug. 20, 2017
By Peter Edwards

Health Canada has approved the immediate opening of a downtown supervised safe injection site to combat the opioid crisis in Toronto, but it's not nearly enough, according to one of the founders of an unsanctioned pop-up site at Moss Park.

"It's not a crisis response," registered nurse Leigh Chapman said.

"I think it's great that they have accelerated the opening of the sanctioned safe injection sites," Chapman said. "It would be great if they could expand their hours and have much longer hours than we have."

She said there are no plans to shut down the Moss Park pop-up site, which runs seven days a week, with volunteers working from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.

"We can't abandon these people who are visiting our tent in Moss Park," Chapman said. "We are building trust and allowing them the opportunity to feel safe with volunteers who care about their wellbeing. The city should care too."

More details on the facility at 277 Victoria St., near Yonge and Dundas St., are expected from the Medical Officer of Health on Monday morning.

The interim site there has approval to run until at least Feb. 28, according to Health Canada.

The Moss Park group has received funding from a GoFundMe campaign In addition to supervising injections, it has handed out more than 200 kits of naloxone to block the affects of opioids.

Toronto Mayor John Tory met this month with harm reduction workers to talk about how to respond to the city's opioid problem.

Health Canada has already approved safe injection sites at the South Riverdale Community Health Centre and at the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre, but those sites remain closed pending renovations.

About 2,400 opioid-related overdose deaths were reported in Canada in 2016.

Chapman said her group has successfully responded to five overdoses.

"Generally, every day we see 12 to 25 people," Chapman said. "These are people that are injecting in the medical tents."

Volunteers take daily walks through Moss Park looking for discarded drug-injection kits and reaching out to drug users, she said.

"We've reached out to a place where there is open drug use and the population there is underserved," Chapman said.

The problem comes as heroin, which is grown from poppies and illegally imported, is laced with fentanyl, which is laboratory produced and has high potency.

"People are overdosing in alleys," Chapman said. "They just don't know what they're taking."

Chapman praised the response by police to the Moss Park clinic.

"We've had a ton of police support and community support," Chapman said. "They were amazing. Very supportive."