In addition to the problem of used needles on the ground, the sight of addicts openly injecting drugs is not an uncommon sight for anyone who lives or works downtown.
Greater Sudbury Police say they have heard complaints from the public about it, and understand why people are concerned. But they say arresting addicts is not the solution.
“In many cases, those openly using drugs have addiction issues and we know that police enforcement is not the best course of action,” police spokesperson Kailyn Dunn said in an email Friday.
Addiction, mental illness and homelessness are often co-occurring challenges, Dunn said.
Sudbury police are part of the Community Drug Strategy, a multi-agency group looking for ways to deal with the problem.
Dunn said the CDS is built on five foundations: health promotion and prevention of drug misuse, treatment, harm reduction, enforcement and justice and sustaining relationships.
“The goal (is) to use the most appropriate strategy for the individual and the situation,” she said. “While no two situations are ever the same, when our officers are called to these situations, they always attempt to determine the most appropriate course of action.”
Dunn said a strategy for specifically for downtown involves service providers, support services and business owners “with the ultimate goal of providing assistance/supports to vulnerable community members and ensuring the safety, security and wellness of our community as a whole.”
Shana Calixte, manager of mental health and addictions, Public Health Sudbury and Districts, said it's important to remember that addicts are people dealing with profound personal challenges.
"I think it's really important to humanize people using drugs,” Calixte said. “That's the first way we're going to help remove some of the barriers when it comes to talking about drug abuse and the opioid crisis.”
Public health is part of the Community Drug Strategy, and she said working together offers the best chance at finding solutions.
"We're looking at some of the ways we can come together as a community to support people, whether it's having safe supplies or reducing that stigma," she said. "We want to be sure we're protecting people from the harms of drug use. And we do have a number of harm reduction initiatives."
Longer term, she said Public Health is in the very early stages of looking at opening a safe injection site.
"We're not sure if our community needs that, so we're looking to do a study," Calixte said. "But knowing a supervised injection space would offer people a safe place to go, where they could find connections to mental health and addiction services, there would be medical professionals there.
"But to be clear, it wouldn't solve this issue" of people shooting up in the open, added. “We don't have a plan to address that."
However, it is still warm outside, Calixte said, so the issue will likely recede as winter sets in.
