‘We got lucky’: Sunshine House, WFPS save 10 from overdoses

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This article was published 28/01/2025 (221 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ten people overdosed within minutes of each other Sunday as toxic drugs tore through the inner city, pushing harm-reduction and emergency workers to the brink.

The Mobile Overdose Prevention Site, run by Sunshine House, and members of the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service responded to the overdoses inside a two-hour window in the area of Main Street and Logan Avenue Sunday afternoon.

Sunshine House executive director Levi Foy said Tuesday the incidents pushed staff and the mobile unit to its limits.

“We got lucky,” Foy said, noting some staff came in on their days off to assist. “Sunday was an anomaly, and we’d never be able to do that again in the way that we did it.”

“Brown down” was thought to be the culprit in some of the poisonings. The drug, which gets its name from its brown sugar-like appearance, is a concoction of various substances, usually leftover benzodiazepines, often mixed with fillers, including opioids.

A drug alert issued Sunday by supervised consumption site advocate Safer Sites — its second in less than a week — said tests confirmed “brown down,” contained diphenoxylate HCL, an opioid used in treating diarrhea.

The city didn’t say how many emergency personnel attended Tuesday, but its open data source that compiles substance use-related calls showed four separate incidents involving 10 males ranging in age from 20 to 44 in Point Douglas between 2:42 p.m. and 3:15 p.m.

A spokesperson for the city said it averages about 27 calls per day relating to substance use.

Foy said two or three emergency vehicles were sent to the area.

“Many things aligned Sunday that made it a little more manageable than it was,” Foy said.

One of those factors was proximity.

Five incidents happened at the mobile prevention site, while the other five occurred within a one-block radius.

“It saves lives, gets people connected to the services they need, and connects people to the path of recovery.”– Addictions Minister Bernadette Smith underscoring the need for a supervised consumption site in the area where the overdoses occurred.

Mobile unit staff members gave multiple shots of naloxone to victims. That helped some recover by the time the WFPS arrived, which freed emergency workers to tend to other victims who were not responding to the overdose-reversing agent.

“Nobody was transported to hospital as far as we know,” Foy said.

The potency of “down” varies greatly from batch to batch.

The toxicity found in Sunday’s batch was abnormally high, Foy said, attributing that to reports from longtime staff who’ve had boots on the ground.

“Down is a constant in Winnipeg … and has been since we opened the site (in 2022),” Foy said.

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In its first year of operation, the mobile prevention unit aided with 20 overdose events from Oct. 28, 2022, to Oct. 31, 2023.

Preliminary data from 2024 showed 25 overdose events from during the six-month period from April 1 to Oct. 15, providing a snapshot of a likely spike in poisoning incidents.

Foy said they’re at a disadvantage with the mobile prevention unit, as it’s not a controlled environment.

“So we have a lot more contingencies that our team has to deal with that you wouldn’t have in, say, a permanent, safe consumption site,” he said.

Addictions Minister Bernadette Smith said Tuesday the incidents underscore the need for a supervised consumption site in the area.

“It saves lives, gets people connected to the services they need, and connects people to the path of recovery,” she said.

The province has earmarked a south Point Douglas building on the Disraeli Freeway as the potential location for the province’s first such site, a decision that’s drawn mixed reactions, including concerns around safety and criticism of the consultation process.

Smith said a supervised consumption site needed to be up and running yesterday.

“It’s comforting to hear that these overdoses were reversed and these individuals were able to get the supports that they needed,” she said. “We want to let those folks know that help is coming.”

Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, said an influx of 10 overdoses at Health Sciences Centre had the potential to cripple the emergency department.

“Thank goodness for Sunshine House and the program they run because 10 overdoses into HSC emergency would have been massive for them,” Jackson said. “It would have really put a strain on them.

“This really shines a light on needing drug testing and … highlights that we need safe consumption sites.”

Jackson said nurses she’s spoken with are seeing more drug-related incidents and more overdoses than in the past.

“We anticipate the opening of a safer consumption site in the downtown/Point Douglas area … will undoubtedly ease some of the foot traffic that MOPS currently experiences.”– Charlene Hallett

“It’s really turned into a crisis,” she said.

Last July, the province announced an Indigenous-led supervised consumption site would be operational in 2025 and run by the Aboriginal Health & Wellness Centre.

That’s still the plan, but Smith said they’re not rushing it.

“We’re going through the consultation process,” Smith said. “We want to make sure we’re getting this right.”

Charlene Hallett, the wellness centre’s cultural and health integration lead for the proposed site, said the news of the overdose incident filled their organization with heartache, worry and grief.

“We anticipate the opening of a safer consumption site in the downtown/Point Douglas area — as a model of health care that comes complete with nurses and other allied health professionals — will undoubtedly ease some of the foot traffic that MOPS currently experiences from folks looking for safer spaces to use their drugs, and serve as a permanent site that our relatives can regularly count on for harm reduction supplies, health-care education, and cultural supports,” Hallett said in an email.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca

Scott Billeck
Reporter

Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.  Read more about Scott.

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