Today, a group of Sudburians got a first look at a service that could help stem the tide of the overdose crisis in the city.
Réseau Access Network held a launch event in conjunction with the National Day of Action on the Overdose Crisis on April 16, and set up a mock consumption and treatment services (CTS) facility inside their office at 111 Larch Street.
The acronym CTS is new to the vernacular and is in essence a safe consumption site for drug users. At present, Sudbury is without such a site, and Thunder Bay is the home to the only CTS in Northern Ontario.
Here in Sudbury, between 2016 and present day, there have been between 90 and 100 people who have died by overdose. In the past week the city has seen a spike, and Réseau community outreach co-ordinator Lisa Toner says that there have been two deaths associated with opioid use in Sudbury in just the last 72 hours.
"The overdose crisis is so real here in Sudbury," said Toner. "The estimations from 2016 to now are somewhere between 90 and 100 people (who have died to overdose), it's hard to give an accurate number because we weren't collecting the data very well before."
The goal of Tuesday's launch event was to provide an idea of what a safe space for drug users could look like and to shed some light on the harm reduction that it could provide. Toner says that evidence gathered from around the globe has shown that there have been no drug-related deaths at safe consumption sites.
Benefits from this type of service include connecting drug users to substance use treatment, other health and social services, along with health care and housing services. Additionally, CTS can reduce public safety issues associated with illegal drug use, like discarded needles.
Access to clean needles can also help reduce the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C.
"As long as the site is being utilized, you'll see a decrease in fatal opioid overdoses as a result of people injecting in a space where those overdoses will be responded to," said Toner.
Terry-Lynn Jenkins has been advocating for a service like this in Sudbury for some time now. Jenkins lost her son to a fatal overdose when he was just 21 years old.
"This is absolutely of the most importance, just having a safe space for drug users is so important," said Jenkins. "You look around and we have spaces and services for people with mental health issues, where are these spaces for people who use drugs?"
Sudbury MPP Jamie West attended Tuesday's launch and said he was impressed by the space and hopes to one day see a facility like this in Sudbury.
"When you get to see it, it makes a lot more sense and you're able to actually visualize it. You look around and it's very simple to set up," said West.
"When it comes to harm reduction and the opioid situation that we have in our community, this is one way that we can reduce harm in our community and reduce needless deaths. It's also a way that we can capture the needles that are frustrating people who are finding them, and a way to reduce the number of shared needles that spread diseases."
The Sudbury Community Drug Strategy is currently in the process of preparing a needs assessment and feasibility study to look at the potential to have a CTS brought to the city. That study is expected to be completed some time in 2020.
Once the study is completed and a proposal is made the the Ontario government, the onus falls on Premier Doug Ford and his party to decide if Sudbury would be a good fit for a consumption and treatment services facility.
"It definitely depends on the Ford government because he's recently put a cap on how many of these services he's going to allow in the province," said Toner.
"A few of them were just shut down in Toronto because he felt there were too many concentrated in one area. Clearly we don't have that challenge in Northern Ontario, because we don't have another service that would make it seem like there are too many in one area, so that may, in some small way, be helpful for us in the application process."
For more on Réseau Access Network, visit them online.
