One week after the Ontario government announced it would suspend plans to open overdose prevention sites in the province, a group of harm reduction activists have stepped in to open an unsanctioned site in Parkdale.
The Toronto Overdose Prevention Society (OPS), along with a group of Parkdale residents and drug users, announced the plan in a news release Monday.
They pointed to both the province’s recent decision to “pause” the legal, funded sites and a recent rash of overdose deaths in the city as to why they’re taking action.
Over a 12-day period, seven people died as a result of drug overdoses. The spike in deaths prompted a public safety alert from Toronto Police, who have responded by increasing the presence of police officers in the west-end neighbourhood.
Investigators have said they believe the drugs contained traces of fentanyl or carfentanil, which are deadly synthetic opioids. An amount weighing less than a grain of salt can kill someone.
The Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre site was one of three authorized by the previous Liberal government as a response to the opioid epidemic wreaking havoc across the country.
Two days before the site was supposed to open, Aug. 13, the newly-minted PC government froze the funding.
At the time, Health Minister Christine Elliott said evidence suggesting the sites are ineffective spurred the decision. She said the government wanted to conduct more consultation with residents living near the sites.
Overdose prevention sites offer supervision and access to clean needles and treatment, such as the opioid overdose antidote naloxone, to people who want to take drugs they have obtained.
The OPS says the sites are a “crucial element” in keeping drug users safe while also providing a “low-barrier entry point” to the health system or a treatment program.
“If the Minister of Health is truly serious about addressing overdose deaths, then she must reject overly simplistic calls for access to treatment as the sole solution to this crisis,” the news release reads. “A truly comprehensive response must ensure that social determinants of health are addressed, and that a wide-range of low barrier health and social services are available to people who use drugs.”
Now, the group is calling on Elliott to reverse the decision to “pause” the three sites and increase funding to existing OPS sites, such as the one in Toronto’s Moss Park neighbourhood.
They’re also asking for the province to call on the federal government to decriminalize drugs.
Members of OPS will operate out of tents at Beaty Boulevard Park on King Street West, near Triller Avenue, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.
