ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½

People will sicken and some will die from reusing dirty syringes.

There are in fact dozens of such places trying to keep a low profile in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½, which only underscores the depth and breadth of need amidst an ongoing opioids epidemic: more than 2,200 Ontarians died from opioids use last year, 633 suspected drug-related deaths reported from March through May this year.

As my colleague Omar Mosleh reported, more than 600 individuals and organizations signed a letter sent to Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones last Monday, urging the government to rescind an edict foisted upon the province’s ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½less and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubbs. That policy directive is contained within the provincial Community Care and Recovery Act, passed in December amidst growing concern about the communal impact of supervised injection sites in residential neighbourhoods — an infestation of crime, discarded needles, open sex acts, urination and defecation in nearby yards, negative impact on adjacent businesses and the alarming (to many) presence of addled users.

It took the death of an innocent mother, Karolina Huebner-Makurat, killed by a stray bullet as she walked along the sidewalk hard by the South Riverdale Health Centre (which housed the KeepSix Consumption and Treatment Service, now closed) in a shooting incident between alleged drug dealers two summers ago, for the government to finally act upon community distress that had been building for several years.

The Act was not wrong-headed at its core. It compelled existing supervised drug consumption sites to be at least 200 metres from schools and daycare centres, which is a reasonable compromise (although it’s being challenged in court). As a result, nine sites, including four in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½, were forced to cease offering supervised consumption by March 31. “Permanently closed’’ appears in a red slash on the website of such heavily frequented user locations as The Works, near Yonge and Dundas. ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Public Health could no longer offer supervised consumption service either.

The mandate allowed existing sites to transition into HART Hubs prioritizing treatment and recovery — also navigating users, many of whom are homeless or underhoused, into permanent housing. But supervised consumption is forbidden and that includes distribution of sterile needles. Which, as had been pointed out to the government — a warning thus far ignored — is not evidence-driven and will push the repeated use of dirty needles and injection equipment, a regressive approach that would doubtless increase transmission of HIV, AIDs, viral hepatitis and other blood-borne sexually transmitted diseases, while untethering addicts from the services they require to survive.

There have been a multitude of studies in a multitude of countries from over three decades showing the health and safety benefits of needle exchange programs and sterile supplies — tourniquets, swabs, cookers, disposal bins — while facilitating treatments to get off drugs.

National Institute of Drug Abuse (U.S.): “Contrary to worries that syringe services programs (SSPs) will encourage or promote drug use, evidence shows that they more often do the opposite, linking people with addiction to effective treatment and even helping prevent overdose deaths.’’

Georgetown Medical Review: “Research has shown that not only do SSPs not increase drug use, but they also decrease infectious disease transmission (50 per cent reduction in HIV and hepatitis C virus infection). Furthermore, SSPs connect persons who inject drugs to treatment facilities for substance use and people who use SSPs are upwards of five times more likely to receive treatment for their substance abuse and upwards of three times more likely to reduce or stop injecting drugs.’’

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: SSPs are proven and effective community-based prevention programs that can provide a range of services. SSPs protect the public and first responders by facilitating the safe disposal of used needles and syringes.’’

Ontario’s 2018 Substance Use Prevention and Harm Reduction Guideline: Instructed boards of health to “provide or ensure the availability of sterile needles and syringes, as well as safer drug use supplies.’’

They’re not perfect because drug addiction is an imperfectly understood human condition with numerous contributing factors, ranging from mental health to poverty to homelessness to trauma. But we shouldn’t allow perfection to be the enemy of the good.

Ford’s government is doubling down on an approach that ignores reality, leaning into the moral parameters of addiction that puts judgment ahead of compassion and solid evidence-based expertise. As Health Ministry spokesperson Ema Popovic told Mosleh last week, “our government’s focus is on offering people struggling with mental health and addictions challenges a pathway to treatment, not giving them tools to use illicit drugs.’’

Further, when I asked Popovic where addicts are supposed to go for sterile supplies if HART Hubs are no longer permitting safe needle exchange, the answer was casually dismissive. “The ministry would not have information on programs we don’t run.’’

To wit: Not our problem.

Except it is their problem, one they’ve exacerbated if not created.

It needs to be undone.