Organization considering how it could transport clients to supervised location The Salvation Army isn't planning a supervised injection site for the shelter and health complex it has proposed for Vanier, but the organization is putting thought into how it could transport clients to those licensed facilities. While the topic has come up in public, Salvation Army spokesman Glenn van Gulik said the organization has no intention of running an injection site if it receives planning approval for the project at 333 Montreal Rd. [continues 557 words]
Many cases unreported due to naloxone distribution, says health official There's likely a large number of unreported opioid overdoses in North Bay. That's because the antidote naloxone is being distributed by pharmacies and front-line organizations to those struggling with addiction, as well as their friends and family members, throughout the community. Kathleen Jodouin, HIV education co-ordinator at the AIDS Committee of North Bay and Area, says her organization has had a take-home naloxone program in place for the past two years. And, she says, the drug, which temporarily reverses the effects of heroin and other opioid drugs, is frequently given out. [continues 602 words]
The opioid crisis plaguing much of Canada has made its mark on southwestern Ontario's emergency rooms. Visits to the region's emergency rooms for opioid overdoses went up almost 28 per cent from 281 in 2015 to 359 in 2016, according to statistics recently released by Public Health Ontario. Divided by health unit, Chatham-Kent, and Lambton and Huron numbers actually dipped in 2016 compared to 2015 while Elgin-St. Thomas, Middlesex-London and Oxford numbers skyrocketed. "We've seen high rates of overdose here for several years. We've seen the hospital rates go up," said Dr. Chris Mackie, medical officer of health for the London-Middlesex Health Unit. [continues 547 words]
Lowertown facility to greet first clients next Tuesday Health Canada on Friday granted the necessary exemption for an interim supervised injection site in Lowertown, with Ottawa Public Health planning to greet the first clients on Tuesday. The health unit is using the federal exemption granted to the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre to run the temporary injection facility at 179 Clarence St. David Gibson, executive director of the Sandy Hill health centre, said it's a first to see an interim exemption for an injection site granted to an organization using another organization's exemption. [continues 198 words]
PORT HOPE - A detailed report about how the local health unit is battling opioid overdoses and fatalities does not yet include a safe injection site like the one established this summer after a volunteer pop-up tent appeared in Toronto. After receiving the Medical Officer of Health's (MOH) report about how the inventory, supply and control of Naloxone has been established and the first "pop up" Naloxone community event was held at the hospital in Lindsay last month, board members of the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit asked if there were plans in place to react to a "pop-up" safe injection site should it occur in the health unit's own tri-county jurisdiction. [continues 118 words]
NDP leadership candidate Jagmeet Singh's recent promise that, as prime minister, he would move quickly to drop criminal penalties for possession or purchase of small amounts of all drugs will no doubt seem radical to many. Broad-based decriminalization would beast ark reversal after decades of increasingly punitive policies. And this would certainly add a layer of complication to the already complicated task of legalizing marijuana, which Ottawa and the provinces are struggling to do by next summer. The Trudeau government' s current position on decriminalization is understandable: Ottawa already has its hands full with pot. [continues 458 words]
Nothing seems to have the cops and local and provincial politicians scrambling more these days than their attempts to get ahead of the federal government's plans to make marijuana legal by next summer. But that should hardly be too much of distraction to allow the toker in the Prime Minister's office, the cute and clever Justin Trudeau, off the hook when it comes to effectively dealing with a more immediately critical drug issue, the opioid crisis. Yet is seems to have. [continues 650 words]
If, by providing safe-injection sites society is saying it is OK to shoot illegal drugs, aren't we just encouraging drug use? Gordon Ball Ottawa (Opinions seem to differ on that one.) [end]
While politicians were busy debating whether to create a new group to deal with an opioid crisis, community agencies went ahead and formed it themselves. That created a confusing conversation at a city hall committee on Monday night, when politicians debated the opioid crisis working group for the third time since Aug. 1. But third time's the charm. Originally, Mayor Matt Brown asked council to establish the group, billed as a task force that would help address the opioid crisis that's killing dozens of Londoners each year. [continues 386 words]
News that Toronto is one big step closer to a long-term safe injection site is most welcome, particularly as this city, like many in North America, grapples with a growing opioid addiction crisis. It's also a reminder of the important work ahead. In the month since a pop-up injection site opened in Moss Park, the volunteer staff has accommodated nearly 2,700 visits and administered 26 doses of naloxone, the antidote to these deadly drugs. As City Councillor Joe Cressy told the Star's David Rider last week, the Moss Park project provides yet further proof that safe-injection sites work and underscores the need for more of them. [continues 346 words]
Supervised health unit in Lowertown a temporary solution to ongoing problem The Ottawa Board of Health on Monday night unanimously endorsed a plan by the city's top doctor to set up a temporary supervised injection site in Lowertown at a time when more people are overdosing and ending up in hospital emergency rooms. Isra Levy, the medical officer of health, has already started the legwork to get the site ready at 179 Clarence St., which is an Ottawa Public Health facility, in partnership with the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre. Health Canada received the application for an interim injection site there last Tuesday. [continues 519 words]
Up to now, Montreal has largely been spared the worst of the fentanyl crisis that has taken such a horrible toll in Vancouver and certain other parts of Western Canada. But the city's luck is starting to run out. The extremely powerful synthetic opioid is increasingly being found in street drugs in this city. As its presence increases, the result will be sadly predictable: more fatal overdoses by users, many of them unaware of its presence or of its power. [continues 361 words]
Plans are afoot to give the Moss Park "pop-up" safe-injection tent, established by volunteers just over a month ago as an emergency response to overdose deaths, a permanent future in a nearby building. And the city councillor leading Toronto's overdose crisis response foresees similar facilities - where people can safely inject drugs without fear of arrest - in "three or four" other neighbourhoods in addition to the four sites Toronto will have by the end of October. "The experience in Moss Park demonstrates that safe injection saves lives and works," Councillor Joe Cressy said in an interview Friday. [continues 502 words]
Report puts Brantford at top in province for emergency room visits due to opioid poisoning, A report putting Brantford at the top of the provincial list for emergency room visits due to opioid overdoses is a "wake-up call," says Ruth Gratton. "I think this report validates all of the hard work that is being done in the community and will serve as justification for ramping up those efforts," Gratton, manager of infectious disease at the Brant County Health Unit, said Friday. [continues 1187 words]
Health board approves Lowertown location The Ottawa Board of Health on Monday night unanimously endorsed a plan by the city's top doctor to set up a temporary supervised injection site in Lowertown at a time when more people are overdosing and ending up in hospital emergency rooms. Isra Levy, the medical officer of health, has already started the legwork to get the site ready at 179 Clarence St., which is an Ottawa Public Health facility, in partnership with the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre. Health Canada received the application for an interim injection site there last Tuesday. [continues 476 words]
Democrat Larry Krasner, the front-runner to become Philadelphia's next district attorney, says he supports city-sanctioned spaces where people addicted to heroin can inject drugs under medical supervision and access treatment, a move advocates see as a promising step toward making the city the first in the U.S. to open such a site. His Republican opponent, Beth Grossman, says she's open to discussions on the matter. For those on the front lines of the heroin crisis in Philadelphia, both are encouraging stances in a political arena where the idea can still be dismissed out of hand. But recently, cities across the country have begun to consider the possibility of instituting supervised injection sites; several nations, including Canada, have used the approach for years. [continues 898 words]
NDP leadership candidate Jagmeet Singh's recent promise that, as prime minister, he would move quickly to drop criminal penalties for possession or purchase of small amounts of all drugs will no doubt seem radical to many. Broad-based decriminalization would be a stark reversal after decades of increasingly punitive policies. And this would certainly add a layer of complication to the already-complicated task of legalizing marijuana, which Ottawa and the provinces are struggling to do by next summer. The Trudeau government's current position on decriminalization is understandable: Ottawa already has its hands full with pot. [continues 862 words]
We cannot just "pop in" and rob a bank without expecting the full extent of the law to come down on us, but we can just "pop up" an illegal drug injection site? The world has become an absolutely insane place when illegal drugs are "pushed" on to the population and encouraged by a growing number of the population. Drug-injection sites are just wrong. Kevin Shea Ottawa (It's a polarized debate.) [end]
Those involved in the illegal safe injection site in the market are claiming victory because of the numbers of addicts shooting up there. Providing addicts a place to administer their drug of choice, plus clean needles, is only facilitating their addiction, not helping to solve it. These addicts still have to get money to buy drugs, usually via criminal activity, and are buying street drugs with no idea of the quality or risk. There needs to be more efforts to wean addicts off drugs, which would make their lives better, help our ailing health-care system and keep citizens and our streets safer. Larry Comeau Ottawa (Getting people off drugs should always be the goal.) [end]
Well, it happened - a life was saved. A person using the pop-up safe injection site overdosed and was saved thanks to the dedicated volunteers and the use of naxolone, which reverses the effects of an overdose until paramedics can arrive. To me this says everything: one less person is dead due to this horrible epidemic of opioid use. To the people against this site, please think about this, maybe go visit the site and talk to the volunteers and thank them for saving this life. Life throws us curveballs and one day that person saved could be your loved one or perhaps even yourself. Lori Holloway Ottawa (Much of the concern is what happens if someone overdoses - and isn't saved.) [end]
