Everyone deserves safety

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/11/2023 (1040 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Picture it: a clean, safe facility where a person can go to indulge in their poison of choice, where staff on-hand can attend clients as they partake in a safe supply of their vice, and intervene as needed to avoid dangerous overuse. Right in the heart of Winnipeg.

It doesn’t take much to imagine it, though. We already have plenty of those places throughout the city.

We usually call them bars.

But a different supervised consumption site — one where users of harder, illicit substances can experience the same treatment — has proven highly controversial.

After the previous PC government’s dogged refusal to open a safe consumption site in the province, Premier Wab Kinew has wasted no time moving in the opposite direction: on Nov. 2, his government confirmed it plans to open such a site in downtown Winnipeg.

It’s a step in the right direction. The rise of fentanyl, crystal meth and other powerful drugs on the street has created a worsening crisis in the city. Between the potency of the drugs themselves, and the risks associated with unsanitary use or tainted supply, supervised consumption sites can go a long way toward imposing some control over the current chaos.

Critics of the facilities claim they only serve to encourage drug use — but naysayers who dismiss these facilities because they fail to cure all ills are missing a greater point.

Drug overdose deaths in Manitoba are at a record high — there were 418 in total in 2022, according to Manitoba’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Each of those people suffered in the throes of a terrible disease we call addiction. Even those who express a desire to get clean and free of these drugs may never succeed in doing so.

But one thing is certain — the parents, children, siblings, and other friends and loved ones of an addict would surely prefer a world where the fight can go on, rather than end tragically.

That’s where the supervised consumption site comes in. Within the building, users are offered a clean, safe and private environment. They can be provided with clean implements to use, and their drugs can be checked for signs of contamination. Trained staff are on hand to monitor users. And, yes, their use of such a facility gets them off the street and away from prying eyes, minimizing the risks -both for themselves and others – involved in mingling with the greater public.

An SCS can also be a hub connecting users to the many services which can help a person live a drug-free life. Vancouver’s Insite facility, which this year marked 20 years in operation is one example. In addition to serving as an SCS, the facility also includes a detox centre — called Onsite — as well as transitional housing. Where safe consumption sites may not be able to serve as one-stop shops, they can be places where users can connect with services which will help them kick their habits and access housing and other crucial services.

A safe consumption site in Winnipeg will not single-handedly solve the province’s drug crisis. The problem is too great and its facets too many for that. It is, however, a long-missing piece of the puzzle. There are still issues of housing, of poverty, of mental health, and other factors to address before we can really have a comprehensive handle on the despair that has led to escalating drug use and addiction.

Shunting addicts to the dark corners of the world, to get clean by their own power, is how we got here in the first place. It doesn’t work and never will.

A safe consumption site will offer those battling addiction a little bit of dignity — and it just might go a long way.