Pubdate: Sun, 08 Jan 2017
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2017 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Page: A10

GET THEM OPEN, GET IT DONE FAST

No city in the country would want to be in Vancouver's shoes right now.
The municipality is in the midst of an illicit-drug-overdose epidemic that
killed 128 people in November alone - an average of more than four deaths
a day.

Indeed, in the first 11 months of last year, the overdose crisis was
responsible for 755 deaths, up 70 per cent from the same period in 2015,
with some addicts actually overdosing multiple times a day.

The main culprit for the upswing? Fentanyl. That drug alone, which is 100
times more toxic than morphine, was responsible for 374 overdose deaths
between January and October, up 194 per cent over the previous year.

If the fentanyl epidemic resembles earlier drug-usage patterns, it's only
a matter of time until it hits Toronto. "Be ready," Vancouver Mayor Gregor
Robertson warned Mayor John Tory.

That's why it's so troubling that Ottawa and Queen's Park are frustrating
the city's efforts to open three safe injection sites by dragging their
heels on approval and funding.

Both levels of government need to recognize the looming crisis and act
quickly before the epidemic hits Toronto with a vengeance. Toronto
Councillor Joe Cressy, chair of Toronto's drug strategy panel, says the
city needed approval "yesterday."

Although it's true Toronto got its applications for the three sites into
Health Canada only in early December, considering the urgency, the holdup
is unconscionable and perplexing.

Health Minister Jane Philpott is already on record as publicly supporting
supervised injection sites and has also said she would scrap the Harper
government's Respect for Communities Act, which created the arduous
application process on which Toronto is now awaiting approval.

So why the delay? Cressy says the city has jumped through all the Act's
required legal hoops, so approval should have been automatic. Further, the
city has the support of the public, police, council and health officials
to open the sites.

The province doesn't seem to recognize the urgency of the situation
either. A spokesperson for Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins told the
Star the province was "working" with the city to review the funding
request.

But it's simple. Toronto needs a one-time grant of $350,000 to build
cubicles and a waiting room in each location and $1.8 million in annual
operating costs to get them up and running.

"This is a very small amount to invest to save lives," Tory rightly points
out. Time is of the essence. While Toronto doesn't track drug overdoses in
real time as Vancouver does, there are signs the drug overdose crisis is
fast approaching. Between 2004 and 2014, Toronto witnessed a 77-per-cent
increase in overdose deaths. And in 2014 alone, there was a record 258
overdose deaths.

Just as worrisome is the changing makeup of the city's drug scene. Last
year, Toronto police seized more than three kilograms of fentanyl, up
dramatically from the approximately 350 grams it confiscated the year
before. And officers say the drug is turning up more often now as pills
disguised as OxyContin and powder, rather than as fentanyl patches. The
danger is that users - addicts and recreational users alike - are unaware
when drugs like heroin and cocaine are cut with fentanyl.

The situation is so serious that on Monday, Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Toronto's
acting medical officer of health, will chair the first in a series of
monthly meetings aimed at preventing an increase in overdoses. Among those
planning to attend the "Toronto overdose surveillance and alert
partnership" are the mayor, paramedics, police, harm-reduction advocates
and hospital officials.

The goal is to get ahead of - and if possible to prevent - the kind of
overdose epidemic that Vancouver is experiencing. The obvious first step
is to get the safe injection sites open.

This is not a time for the federal and provincial governments to be
dilly-dallying.
- ---
MAP posted-by: