Canada’s first inhalation site for drug users to open in Lethbridge
CALGARY A facility in Lethbridge will become North America’s first supervised inhalation site when it opens early next year amid a drug death epidemic that has devastated families across the province.
ARCHES is the only organization or health board in the country, so far, to be granted approval by Health Canada for a site that will permit all four modes of drug consumption — injection, oral, intranasal and inhalation.
The approval allows drug users to smoke drugs like methamphetamine (crystal meth), as well as crack cocaine and heroin in specially ventilated rooms at the site.
“People are not just dying from injecting — they’re dying from snorting, taking pills orally and they’re also dying from smoking,” said ARCHES executive director Stacey Bourque.
At ARCHES’ current crammed offices in Lethbridge, people churn though the doors on one of the busiest days of the month — the day before “cheque day,” when many clients will receive their monthly provincial benefits.
Staff hand out packages containing clean needles, pipes, rubber tourniquets and alcohol swabs, peppering the drug users who come through the door with friendly questions, including when
People are not just dying from injecting — they’re dying from snorting, taking pills orally and they’re also dying from smoking.
was the last time they slept? Had they eaten anything today?
Ashley, 24, who is addicted to meth and comes to ARCHES regularly for supplies and counselling, says she relies on the people who work there.
“Without them, I don’t know where I would be. One lady is trying to get me into treatment and I’m actually thinking of going,” she said, adding quietly, “but I’ve said that before.”
And after 10 years of drug use and living with a partner who is also addicted to meth and opiates, she says it’s hard imagine her life changing.
“I just can’t picture my life different. I want to, but I can’t.”
ARCHES staff said the new supervised consumption site opening in January will help prevent deaths, reduce the rates of transmission of HIV and Hep C and encourage some drug users to get treatment.
The 10,000-square-foot facility will be housed at the site of a former nightclub, next to a Christian thrift store on the city’s south side.
There will be six injection booths and two independently ventilated rooms for smoking that will be observed by two nurses at all times. Afterwards, clients will be encouraged to stick around to use the kitchen, grab a shower, do some laundry or talk to a counsellor.
Bourque said there’s been a lot of support for the site in Lethbridge and some opposition, too.
“Some of those concerns will be reduced once the site is open and people realize that this is not going to create a whole new list of social problems in the community,” she said.
Lethbridge, which borders the largest reserve in Canada, has been hit hard by the opioid crisis in ways, Bourque said, that are sometimes overlooked with a lot of the focus falling on the big cities.
“The first people to ring the alarm in the province was the Blood Tribe — this is certainly not a big-city issue,” said Bourque. “It is widespread across the province, across the country.
“The only thing that changes is the price of the drug. The more isolated a community you live in, the higher the cost of the drug.”
According to the latest provincial data, from Jan. 1 to Aug. 12, 315 individuals in Alberta died from an apparent drug overdose death related to fentanyl, up 58 per cent from the same period last year.
So far in 2017, while the total number of deaths from fentanyl were fewer in Lethbridge, the death rate per 100,000 persons exceeds that of Calgary and Edmonton.
“For a population our size, we’re definitely losing people at a significant rate,” Bourque said.
ARCHES currently serves a population of about 3,000 in Lethbridge. Another 3,000 people in rural areas surrounding the city receive indirect support from the organization, Bourque estimates.
Bourque said her organization is excited to be the first to open a supervised drug consumption site that includes inhalation.
“It’s one of the few tools we have right now to reduce harm and prevent death,” she says. “We don’t have a lot of options outside of this, we’ve tried everything else.”
Health Canada has now approved a total of six supervised consumption sites in Alberta, including four in Edmonton — although questions have been raised about the effectiveness of having facilities largely geared toward injection drugs, when drugs like fentanyl are commonly swallowed in pill form or ground up and inhaled.
Only one of the Edmonton sites, the Royal Alexandra Hospital, will allow oral and intranasal in addition to injection drug use.