Winnipeg health explores safe consumption sites, but no plans yet

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This article was published 14/09/2017 (2956 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority is exploring the idea of a program similar to a supervised injection site.

The WRHA, along with Manitoba Health and Health Canada, is in the early consideration stages of possible safe consumption spaces, according to its medical director of health, Dr. Joss Reimer.

The spaces, she explained, would be similar to a supervised injection site, which allows people to use illegal drugs under medical supervision, but “more inclusive to a larger variety of interventions.”

Currently, Reimer said the focus is on figuring out whether people who pick up harm-reduction supplies from Winnipeg health-care workers would actually benefit from such a space.

“We want to understand what their needs are in a variety of different harm-reduction aspects and that includes safe consumption spaces,” she said. “We don’t want to spend dollars on something that people aren’t going to use.”

On Thursday, Canada’s top doctor said supervised sites can help turn around deadly drug epidemics.

“There’s a robust amount of evidence that supports the use of safe consumption sites,” Theresa Tam told the Free Press.

As Canada’s chief public health officer, she advises Ottawa on everything from epidemics to how to curb opioid deaths. Opioids were linked with nearly 3,000 Canadian deaths last year, according to new data released by the federal government Thursday.

“We know that supervised consumption sites, if properly maintained, supervised and managed, actually really save lives,” said Tam, who declined to comment on governments reluctant to implement such facilities.

“I would certainly encourage everybody who’s thinking about this to review the evidence,” she said. “They do not increase crime rates in the area, or (lead to) an increase in drug use, which is already a problem.”

Reimer said there’s no discounting the scientific evidence supporting safe injection sites. The question, she said, is “whether or not they would work in the specific communities, geographies, cultural aspects that happen in Winnipeg and the rest of the province, and whether or not the people who use drugs here are even interested in it.”

Just weeks ago, a spokeswoman for the WRHA and Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman said there would be no safe injection site in the city in the near future.

Reimer said this consultation is “not inconsistent with that,” but rather, “so that we’ll know what to do in the future.”

Nearly half of Winnipeggers support the creation of safe injection sites, according to a 2017 poll conducted by Main Street Research on behalf of Postmedia.

Manitoba Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen said such a program is not something his government would consider at this time.

“We haven’t seen the evidence that it is something that would make a difference… on addiction in Manitoba given the resources that would have to be expended,” he said, adding he’s been keeping a close eye on the issue and pushing for better tracking.

“Even though our numbers are lower than some other provinces, I know from talking to families that that’s no comfort to one family that’s lost a loved one to an overdose,” he said. “So we continue to work with the resources we have to determine where we can have the most impact.”

jane.gerster@freepress.mb.ca

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca