{"id":24202,"date":"2024-05-30T09:40:54","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T13:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hivlegalnetwork.ca\/site\/?post_type=news22&p=24202"},"modified":"2024-05-30T09:40:54","modified_gmt":"2024-05-30T13:40:54","slug":"media-release-new-report-from-hiv-legal-network-examines-legal-and-policy-barriers-to-supervised-consumption-services-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"news22","link":"https:\/\/www.hivlegalnetwork.ca\/site\/media-release-new-report-from-hiv-legal-network-examines-legal-and-policy-barriers-to-supervised-consumption-services-in-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Release – New Report from HIV Legal Network Examines Legal and Policy Barriers to Supervised Consumption Services in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"With supervised consumption services under attack in Canada, this report details an evidence-based response to scaling up life-saving services for people who use drugs<\/em><\/p>\n

For immediate release<\/em><\/p>\n

Thursday, May 30, 2024 \u2014 Toronto \u2014<\/strong> The HIV Legal Network is sharing new evidence that underfunding and the strict regulations imposed on supervised consumption services (SCS) are creating major barriers to access at a time when these services could greatly reduce the number of deaths from the toxic drug supply in Canada, as part of a suite of much-needed harm reduction services and polices.<\/p>\n

The Legal Network\u2019s new report \u2014 <\/strong>Scaling Up Supervised Consumption Services: What has Changed in Canada?<\/em><\/strong><\/a> \u2014 is a critical update to a 2019 report, and shows progress over the past five years with an expansion of SCS in Canada and greater diversity in services. Yet, efforts are insufficient given the scale of the current drug poisoning crisis. And worse, gains are threatened by increasing barriers at provincial levels with deadly impact on people who use drugs. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The report was released as hundreds of people marched on Queen\u2019s Park earlier this week to demand that the Ontario government immediately fund and adequately support lifesaving supervised consumption services in the province. The march culminated in the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO) delivering a petition to Premier Ford featuring hundreds more signatures of those who support these critical services.<\/p>\n

One of the key barriers identified in the report is the vulnerability created for people who use drugs by politically motivated decision making.<\/strong> \u201cWe cannot let electoral politics decide which health services should be available to people who are at acute risk of death in this drug poisoning crisis,\u201d says C\u00e9cile Kazatchkine, Senior Policy Analyst with the HIV Legal Network and the lead author on its latest report.<\/p>\n

The number of provincially funded SCS in Ontario has remained stagnant at 17 for two years, while the number of deaths in the province continues to increase, including death through inhalation. The Ontario Consumption Treatment Services (CTS) model introduced additional conditions over and above what Health Canada requires for federal SCS exemptions and prohibits inhalation services, which are urgently needed in Ontario. The report also points to the need, at all levels of government, to reverse the chronic underfunding of these services that makes it difficult to recruit and retain SCS staff. In Ontario, wait times for CTS funding decisions have been unacceptably long, forcing life-saving services to close because they could not continue operating without provincial funding.<\/p>\n

The report also makes crucial recommendations for the Government of Canada, particularly around the case-by case federal exemptions that are required for SCS to operate without risk of criminal prosecutions under the Controlled Drugs and Substance Act<\/em> and that continue to create barriers to rapid scale up of SCS across the country<\/strong><\/p>\n

Critically, in light of the recent decision by the Government of British Columbia to backtrack on its limited decriminalization pilot and the subsequent rejection by the Government of Canada of Toronto\u2019s decriminalization request, the report notes that the decriminalization of personal drug use<\/strong> would effectively end the need for SCS operators to seek an exemption.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cDecriminalization, including of supervised consumption services, is a necessary step towards ending this crisis. The federal government can and should immediately grant a class exemption that protects clients and staff Canada-wide recognizing that supervised consumption services are evidence-based and life-saving services,\u201d says Kazatchkine. \u201cTwenty-two people die of a preventable drug poisoning every day that governments fail to take appropriate action.\u201d<\/p>\n

-30-<\/p>\n

Media contact:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Megan Long, HIV Legal Network
\nmlong@hivlegalnetwork.ca<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With supervised consumption services under attack in Canada, this report details an evidence-based response to scaling up life-saving services for people who use drugs For immediate release Thursday, May 30, 2024 \u2014 Toronto \u2014 The HIV Legal Network is sharing new evidence that underfunding and the strict regulations imposed on supervised consumption services (SCS) are … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"publication_topics":[],"publication_language":[],"class_list":["post-24202","news22","type-news22","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hivlegalnetwork.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news22\/24202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hivlegalnetwork.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news22"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hivlegalnetwork.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news22"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hivlegalnetwork.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hivlegalnetwork.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news22\/24202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24203,"href":"https:\/\/www.hivlegalnetwork.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news22\/24202\/revisions\/24203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hivlegalnetwork.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"publication_topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hivlegalnetwork.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication_topics?post=24202"},{"taxonomy":"publication_language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hivlegalnetwork.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication_language?post=24202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}