Pubdate: Thu, 17 Mar 2016
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2016 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.torontosun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://torontosun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Don Peat
Page: 10

NEEDLE SITE COST?

No Budget Yet: Top Doc

How Much Will Safe Injection Sites Cost Toronto?

Dr. David McKeown, the city's chief medical officer of health, can't 
say right now, but they hope the province will help fund the three 
proposed drug injection sites that will be scattered across the city.

McKeown is in the midst of consulting the public about his 
recommendation to allow three existing clinics that offer harm 
reduction services to begin to provide supervised injections.

"We have a sense of what the scale of the programs should be, but we 
don't have budgets yet - that'll come later on," McKeown told the 
Toronto Sun's editorial board Wednesday.

But McKeown said the public health department believes the Ontario 
government should foot the bill.

"They haven't been asked yet. I expect that will be part of what I'll 
be reporting to the board (of health) in July," he said.

Although there are no data on how much money a Toronto program could 
save based on the health-care costs of overdoses and disease 
transmission, McKeown pointed to one study that predicts it would be 
cost-effective.

Councillor Joe Cressy, chairman of the Toronto Drug Strategy, said 
the city's needle exchange program distributes 75% of its clean 
needles at the three proposed supervised injection sites.

"That's where the people are using right now," Cressy said. "The 
reality is it is in our backyard here. This is a way for us to go to 
where the users are ... they're coming in the doors now to get their 
needles, this way they're not walking them around the corner."

Cressy said overdose deaths, which are on the rise in the city, are 
"preventable deaths."

"We have 206 people dying due to overdose in the most recent 
numbers," he said. "If we had 206 people dying due to an annual plane 
crash, we would demand, as a city, plane safety."

He pointed out that in 2005, the year of the Summer of the Gun in 
Toronto, there were 52 gun murders.

"It was a horrible, atrocious loss of life and we acted," Cressy 
said, adding that he believes safe injection facilities can save lives.

McKeown is expected to report back to the board of health in July on 
the results of the consultation.

Council is expected to weigh in on the idea by late July.

Even if council opposes it, the federal health minister could still 
grant an exemption to allow the injection sites.

"I do believe that this city should weigh in," Cressy said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom