Report recommends province establish multiple supervised consumption sites, offer safer drugs By: Katrina Clarke Posted: 11:41 AM CDT Thursday, Apr. 18, 2024 Last Modified: 5:36 PM CDT Thursday, Apr. 18, 2024 Updates

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A new report from the organization running Manitoba’s only overdose prevention site recommends the government establish multiple supervised consumption sites throughout the province where safer supply drugs are offered.

The 91-page report, prepared by Winnipeg consulting firm LAHRK Consulting for Sunshine House, which runs the Mobile Overdose Prevention Site — an RV where people can consume drugs under supervision — evaluated MOPS’ first year of operations.

The report declares MOPS a success, with more than 26,000 visits from November 2022 to October 2023, just 20 overdoses and no deaths.

At an event to release the report Thursday, consultant Kerniel Aasland noted 445 Manitobans died in 2023 due to suspected drug overdoses.

“None of those deaths took place at the Mobile Overdose Prevention Site. And that’s the point — to keep people alive,” Aasland said to applause and cheers from the crowd of about 100 people gathered at Circle of Life Thunderbird House.

“None of those deaths took place at the Mobile Overdose Prevention Site. And that’s the point — to keep people alive.”–Consultant Kerniel Aasland

The report comes at a pivotal time for harm-reduction policies in Manitoba. The provincial government is beginning consultations regarding the eventual establishment of a promised supervised consumption site in downtown Winnipeg, which it hopes to open next year.

At a separate event Thursday, Manitoba Addictions Minister Bernadette Smith said experts have recommended the province’s first permanent safe consumption site within a 10-block area where a significant number of people are already using street drugs.

Davey Cole, co-ordinator of the mobile site, recalled the reception from community members shortly after it began operating.

“‘Oh, I’ve heard of this, we need this!’ — every single person that came would say that, even people who weren’t actively engaged in using,” Cole said, adding there was “genuine excitement” that hasn’t faded.

The report recommends that future supervised consumption sites should offer a range of services including counselling, addictions treatment, testing for sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections and options to test drugs. It recommends pairing overdose prevention sites such as MOPS — which is peer-run and travels around the city — with permanent facilities that would offer a broader range of services.

Sites should include input from people with lived experience using substances, the report said, emphasizing the importance of offering a welcoming environment where visitors can feel comfortable.

The report also recommends offering a safer supply of drugs, though it doesn’t get into specifics of what that would look like.

“If we truly want to stop toxic drug poisonings, we should look at having a safe and sanctioned drug supply,” it said.

LAHRK Consulting conducted its evaluation of the site by drawing on data from MOPS, consulting focus groups, referencing media reports and academic literature and surveying community members. More than 600 people were consulted.

The report’s authors said they were told by community organizations that the mobile site helped to alleviate pressures such as overdoses in their bathrooms, which became de facto drug consumption sites. They were also able to refer those using drugs in their spaces to MOPS.

Jamil Mahmood, executive director of Main Street Project, called MOPS a “critical health intervention” that he believes is preventing overdoses at his organization’s shelter. The home base for MOPS is Main Street Project’s parking lot.

“It’s had such a great impact on the community,” he said, noting he’s noticed a “dramatic,” positive change in the neighbourhood.

However, Mahmood noted MOPS is precariously funded — it has run into situations where federal funds were nearly depleted and it had to do emergency fundraising.

He said permanent supervised consumption sites with services such as MOPS connected to them are badly needed in the province, including in shelters and other spaces where people are already using drugs.

Sunshine House is currently in talks with the provincial government regarding funding possibilities for MOPS, said Levi Foy, the organization’s executive director.

A spokesperson for the Department of Housing, Addictions and Homelessness confirmed the staff are in ongoing discussions with Sunshine House and “looking forward to furthering collaboration.”

The previous PC government opposed the mobile site.

Aasland said MOPS visitors reported the space was a great way to be connected with other services, though referrals from peers working at the site, staff and other visitors.

“It is a great place for people to share information, often in ways that is just not available,” he said, noting many visitors were low-income and “almost none” had phones.

The report said visits to the vehicle increased steadily as more people became aware of the service, with as many as 220 people showing up in one day.

Only about one-quarter of the visits involved people using substances. Some were there to access harm-reduction supplies, test their drugs, make community connections and to socialize, the report said.

— with files from Joyanne Pursaga

katrina.clarke@freepress.mb.ca

Katrina Clarke
Investigative reporter

Katrina Clarke is an investigative reporter at the Winnipeg Free Press. Katrina holds a bachelor’s degree in politics from Queen’s University and a master’s degree in journalism from Western University. She has worked at newspapers across Canada, including the National Post and the Toronto Star. She joined the Free Press in 2022. Read more about Katrina.

Every piece of reporting Katrina produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.