A new article published in The Lancet, the prestigious British public health journal, said that supervised drug consumption sites in Ontario — specifically those in Toronto neighbourhoods — have resulted in a significant decrease in fatal drug overdoses occurring in their local urban areas.
The study, published earlier this month, was titled "Overdose mortality incidence and supervised consumption services in Toronto, Canada: an ecological study and spatial analysis".
The authors of the study said they wanted to determine the impact of consumption sites on the wider urban neighbourhoods where people with addictions might live.
"Supervised consumption services (SCS) prevent overdose deaths onsite; however, less is known about their effect on population-level overdose mortality," said the study.
The authors said they wanted to establish the spatial association between SCS locations and overdose mortality events.
Their study looked at 787 fatal overdose events that occurred in Toronto between May 1, 2017, and Dec 31, 2019. During the same period, nine new drug consumption sites were opened in Toronto.
"Data were obtained from the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario on cases of accidental death within the City of Toronto for which the cause of death involved the use of an opiate, synthetic or semi-synthetic opioid, or other psychoactive substance," said the study.
The researchers then assessed the overdose data with information on the geographical proximity of consumption sites.
The research determined that the number of overdose incidents in those neighbourhoods dropped to 2.7 deaths per 100,000 population, down from 8.1 deaths per 100,000 population, said the study.
The study concluded that consumption sites are worth the effort in saving lives.
“This finding suggests that the implementation of SCS could contribute to reductions in overdose mortality in proximal areas," said the study.
"Our finding of potential positive community spillover effects of SCS suggests that, beyond their immediate capacity to reverse onsite overdoses among onsite clients, they might also contribute to population-level overdose prevention efforts."
The study said the use of the population-level metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of consumption sites was warranted and could be used for future policy planning.
The full text of The Lancet study can be found online here.
Sudbury is currently operating a supervised consumption site, known as The Spot, located at Energy Court behind the Lorne Street Beer Store. It is operated by Reseau ACCESS network.
It has been open since the fall of 2022, and although the City of Greater Sudbury provided operating funds of just over $1 million for the site for one year, that funding has ended.
Sudbury city council has taken the position that the province should provide the funding.
The Spot has continued to operate on ad hoc funding from the community, corporate donors and anonymous donors.
