Ontario’s new restrictions on supervised consumption services will result in more death during a worsening drug poisoning crisis; dead people cannot enter treatment.
This statement can be attributed to the HIV Legal Network, the AIDS Committee of Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo, and Area (ACCKWA), Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, Drug Strategy Network of Ontario, DIY Community Health Timmins, Gilbert Centre, Harm Reduction Nurses Association, The J Healthcare Initiative, Moms Stop the Harm, Ontario Aboriginal HIV Aids Strategy, Street Health Community Nursing Foundation, Toronto Overdose Prevention Society, Positive Health Network, Pozitive Pathways, Réseau ACCESS Network, Substance Overdose Prevention & Education Network ,Ryan’s Hope, Tweakeasy, and Waterloo Region Drug Action Team.
August 20, 2024 – Toronto – Today, Ontario Minister of Health Sylvia Jones announced the province’s plan to impose new restrictions on life-saving consumption and treatment services (CTS), more commonly known as supervised consumption services (SCS), closing the door through which many people access life-saving services and become connected to other treatment and care options. Included among the new restrictions will be a requirement that all CTS be located at least 200 metres away from schools or childcare centres, which will affect multiple sites in Ontario and will cut people off from vital care and support. Most CTS are centrally and accessibly located in community health centres, providing easy access to healthcare. Isolating these services will certainly result in more deaths.
Furthermore, the Government of Ontario announced forthcoming legislation to prohibit municipalities and organizations from establishing new CTS, participating in federal safe supply initiatives, and decriminalizing simple drug possession — depriving municipalities of the ability to respond to the local needs of people who are at increased risk of drug poisoning.
This development comes at a time when the drug poisoning crisis has only worsened. As the Chief Medical Officer of Health of Ontario confirmed in his last Annual Report, we need to increase access to SCS, including by allowing the use of inhalation drugs. We denounce this catastrophic plan and urge the Government of Ontario to preserve and scale up CTS funding, alongside voluntary treatment services, and to reject further restrictions on safe supply and decriminalization.
Premier Doug Ford has long dismissed the ample evidence that supports the existence of SCS and refused to scale these services up in his six years in power. Yet years of research and documentation show they have a wide range of benefits. Not only do they prevent accidental overdoses and overdose (or toxic drug) deaths, they reduce the spread of blood-borne infections such as HIV and hepatitis C through harm reduction education and supplies. They also contribute to improved health outcomes by linking clients to health and social services (including treatment and peer-based services), while reducing public drug use and discarded equipment and alleviating the strain on emergency response services and hospital emergency rooms. Some SCS also offer additional services and supports, such as drug checking and peer-assisted injection.
Data shows that there were an estimated 3,812 drug-related deaths in 2023. People must stay alive in order to access treatment, and SCS are saving lives province-wide. Imposing further restrictions and forcing more SCS to move or shutter — with some already closed — instead of scaling up these services is deadly policy. It is also clear that the Province of Ontario cannot possibly scale up treatment services quickly enough, and people will die in the interim.
For more information about SCS and the current state of the law in Canada, please read this recent report: https://www.hivlegalnetwork.ca/site/scaling-up-supervised-consumption-services-what-has-changed-in-canada/?lang=en
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Media Contacts
Dylan DeMarsh – HIV Legal Network
d.dmarsh@hivlegalnetwork.ca
Zoë Dodd – Toronto Overdose Prevention Society
zoedodd26@gmail.com
DJ Larkin – Canadian Drug Policy Coalition
dj_larkin@sfu.ca
Rev. Christine Nayler – Ryan’s Hope (Co-founder/Director), Moms Stop The Harm (Ontario Advocate) christine@ryanshopebarrie.ca
Corey Ranger – Harm Reduction Nurses Association
hrna.aiirm@gmail.com
Jason Sereda – DIY Community Health Timmins
coordinator@diyhealthtimmins.ca