Police chief touts safe sites for drug users in war on addiction
It’s a controversial strategy that has Calgarians evenly split in favour and against. For Calgary police Chief Roger Chaffin, though, there’s no question anymore: setting up safe consumption sites for drug addicts is long overdue.
“Last year would have been better,” he told reporters after a presentation Wednesday to Bow Valley College justice studies students. “As soon as we can get it running and functioning and communicated, the better.”
While the police service’s proposal was announced late last year, it’s the first time Chaffin has spoken at length about it publicly. He plans to take it to Mayor Naheed Nenshi in the coming days.
Acknowledging the controversial nature of what’s known in cities such as Vancouver as safe injection sites, Chaffin was frank about the challenges ahead. “I was in a session last night with some folks and asked them the same question, ‘Who would want this in their backyard?’ Of course, nobody put their hand up,” he said.
“That’s where the controversy lies: How is it done?”
According to Chaffin, the Calgary version of the safe consumption site will likely be a clinic in partnership with Alberta Health, with health professionals overseeing drug use to ensure safety. Unlike Vancouver, he explained, Calgary’s addicts are not entrenched but rather spread out, thus the issues seen in the Downtown Eastside likely wouldn’t happen here.
“Once opioids are out there,” he said, “it doesn’t go away out of fatigue or frustration.”
The only way it goes away, added Chaffin, who noted there may be more than one site, “is when the community comes together and puts together as many services as possible.”
No doubt the new approach is born out of frustration. Last year, 261 Calgarians died from fentanyl overdoses, the highest in a province that in 2016 saw a 675 per cent increase over the five-year average.
Combine that with a 273 per cent increase in the use of methamphetamines and a 200 per cent increase in heroin use, and that spells a mighty big problem.
Along with the human toll of lives ruined and lost, Chaffin told the packed college theatre, this spike in illicit drugs is at the heart of an alarming jump over the past couple of years in break-and-enters and vehicle thefts.
“That’s all related to the increase in drugs.”
While new policing strategies have helped to slow down crimes, Chaffin described it as an ongoing issue that won’t be eradicated by policing and the courts alone. “We can’t hire more police and we can’t arrest our way out of addiction problems.”
In order to tackle the complex issues surrounding addiction, “we first need to meet these people, and meet them in a place and a setting that’s safe for them.”
Along with speaking about safe consumption sites, Chaffin also told the school crowd about how police are partnering with social agencies and school boards to offer a variety of programs and services to attack the root causes and effects of addiction, rather than the revolving door of the courts and jails.
“Putting more help in the community,” is how he sees the police evolving in these troubling times.
“Arresting them, putting (them) into an institution, will likely do nothing.”
Chaffin is well aware that taking on a harm reduction approach to the problem will have its vocal and passionate detractors.
“I think people want to see the crime trends drop; they want to see the health of the city improve,” he said.
“And this is a really good opportunity to start in that direction.”
We can’t hire more police and we can’t arrest our way out of addiction problems.