More than 600 medical and legal experts issued an open letter today calling on the Government of Ontario to allow the distribution of syringes at HART Hubs
Toronto ON – The Ontario government is endangering the health of people who use drugs by prohibiting the distribution of sterile needles and syringes through the province’s newly established Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs. Today, more than 600 organizations and individuals from across the province sent an open letter to Minister of Health Sylvia Jones and other authorities calling on the Province of Ontario to act in accordance with decades of evidence and reverse this disastrous policy decision. People who use drugs need full access to harm reduction care and supplies.
“Depriving people of the proven tools to prevent HIV and hepatitis C infection is a disservice to every community where HART Hubs are located,” says Sandra Ka Hon Chu, Co-Executive Director of the HIV Legal Network. “In many instances, HART Hubs emerged from the forced closure of vital supervised consumption sites that also provided sterile needles and syringes. This means there is now less access to safe equipment in the province, at a time when Canada is the only G7 country seeing increased HIV transmissions, and when almost 10% of transmissions in Ontario are among people who use injection drugs.”
For more than 35 years, needle and syringe programs (NSPs) have been a cornerstone public health intervention to prevent the needless transmission of HIV and hepatitis C in Ontario. The Government of Ontario’s own guidelines state that “distribution of needles/syringes and other drug use supplies has proven to be an effective method in reducing blood-borne infections associated with injection drug use, such as HIV and hepatitis C.” In 2023, Ontario’s Advisory Committee on HIV/AIDS called for “expanding access to harm reduction supplies” and, this past January, the Toronto Board of Health expressly urged Ontario to permit needle and syringe programs at HART Hubs “to reduce the transmission of communicable diseases.”
HART HUB PROHIBITIONS CAUSING FURTHER HARM FOR PEOPLE WHO USE DRUGS
There is also a danger that the prohibition on needle and syringe programs will deter people from accessing broader healthcare and social services offered alongside sterile equipment distribution.
“The restriction on needle and syringe distribution not only endangers some of our most vulnerable clients, it is at a cross-purpose with the public health initiatives that our community health centre has engaged in for decades,” says Angela Robertson, Executive Director of the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre. “We acknowledge that discarded needles are found in locations where drug use occurs. Ontario has cited discarded equipment as one motivation for its actions, yet they have put a huge barrier in place to people returning used supplies. If we truly want to reduce the visibility of discarded supplies, we need widely accessible disposal bins and for sites that collect used supplies to also provide sterile supplies. We need expansion of harm reduction services and support, and we need municipalities to do their part in responding to calls about found needles. We cannot fix the problem of publicly discarded equipment by increasing health risks and harms for vulnerable populations who use drugs.”
“The most recent estimates show that more than 7,000 people living with HIV in Canada are unaware of their status,” says Gillian Kolla, Assistant Professor of medicine at Memorial University. “Needle and syringe programs go well beyond the distribution of sterile supplies and are often the point of contact for people to access HIV testing and other healthcare services. Reducing these crucial public health services at a time when HIV rates are rising is intentionally putting people at risk.”
The signatories of the open letter released today are calling on the Government of Ontario to follow their own guidance, and decades of public health evidence, and allow needle and syringe distribution to continue in the organizations where it has been a key community health initiative for decades, as well as in the new HART Hubs.
Read the open letter here:
https://www.hivlegalnetwork.ca/site/25032/?lang=en
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Media Contacts:
Sandra Ka Hon Chu – Co-Executive Director, HIV Legal Network
schu@hivlegalnetwork.ca
Gillian Kolla – Assistant Professor, Memorial University
gkolla@mun.ca – 416-906-3177
Angela Robertson – Executive Director, Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre
ARobertson@pqwchc.ca – 647-205-4591