All should receive government funding for supervised inhalation. This way, the growing number of people who inhale substances will be closer to the help they need in case of drug poisoning. They’ll also have access to detox, treatment and other health care and social resources.
sa国际传媒 is experiencing a toxic drug poisoning crisis, exacerbated by simultaneous mental health and housing crises. Numbers of fatal drug poisonings have increased dramatically .
In 2023 alone, . The complicates how someone responds to a drug poisoning, contributing to higher fatality rates when people use illicit substances.
Saving lives, cutting costs
Safe consumption sites are a life-saving intervention in this crisis. They provide a safe space for people to use their pre-obtained substances in the presence of staff trained to respond to drug poisonings. , and they help reduce the spread of viral infections like HIV and hepatitis C by providing sterile equipment for drug use, safer sex supplies and educational resources.
Safe consumption sites are also proven to . , there were 41,938 emergency responses to opioid-related overdoses in 2023 across sa国际传媒, 18 per cent higher than in 2022.
A cost analysis of Calgary’s Safeworks safe consumption site demonstrated that it can save the province .
Inhaling drugs
In all Canadian safe consumption sites, people can inject, snort and orally consume substances. For years, by harm-reduction advocates to help curb the spread of viruses like HIV and hepatitis C. However, few safe consumption sites offer indoor supervised inhalation services, even though the federal exemption through Health sa国际传媒 allows for it.
There is a significant amount of evidence suggesting , that the and that .
I am a harm reduction worker in a , Ont. Our program recognizes that the .
Gender-neutral policies
Traditionally, drug policies and harm-reduction services developed across sa国际传媒 in response to the toxic drug poisoning crisis .
But women are far more likely to smoke than inject substances. Unfortunately, most safe consumption sites across sa国际传媒 are not responsive to their needs at this time.
Although the federal government has created a , provincial governments have ultimate control over the conditions under which they will fund safe consumption sites. For example, do not receive funding to accommodate supervised inhalation from the provincial government.
One safe consumption site in Ontario, . But it has not received a consumption and treatment service designation, and therefore must fund itself through grants and private donations. The safe consumption site I work at is in the same boat.
Big investments
It’s expensive needed to prevent substance fumes from affecting people nearby. Furthermore — even though there are — investing in safe inhalation requires information about how indoor inhalation intersects or conflicts with workplace health and safety regulations, and provincial smoking laws are not widely available.
Thankfully, financial and political support for supervised inhalation appears to be increasing in some provinces.
British Columbia has embarked upon a two-year pilot project allowing indoor supervised inhalation at select safe-consumption sites, which has . also recently opened in Montréal with financial assistance from the provincial government.
At a time when we’re dealing with housing, mental health and toxic drug crises, we must adapt evidence-based interventions like safe consumption sites to suit the needs of the people they support. People who use drugs have been telling us they need safe inhalation spaces for a long time. It’s time we listened and took action.
Stephanie Milliken works for YWCA Hamilton's Safer Drug Use Space.
