Consumption site gets mixed reviews
BUSINESS OWNER CONCERNED ABOUT SITE USERS AT HIS LOADING DOCK
The city’s new Supervised Consumption Site is getting mixed reviews from some businesses which operate in the area.
Lou Mate, owner of Graphcom, has been critical of the decision to put the site in a business district.
“The clients come out of that building, and then they come over to my place and hang out on my loading dock because it’s a sheltered area,” said Mate. “It was happening before, and I knew it was going to happen (when the site opened).”
Mate said he had concerns about his staff, as they are the ones using the back entrance to the building at times of the day when there are few other people around.
“I want to know what they are going to do for security around here.
“Many times, they come and there’s somebody in our loading dock area, or multiple people having sex, shooting up, sleeping.
“They are afraid to come in the back door and I just don’t see that getting any better.”
Bernice Kistenfeger, manager at Cloverdale Paint, said while the store has not had any issues since the consumption site opened, she felt it was the wrong way to deal with street-level addiction.
“I know they’re saving lives,” she said. “I get it.”
She added there should be more of a push to get drug users off drugs. “We should be doing rehab.” Kistenfeger was also unsure of how policing in the area might change with addicts coming into the area bringing their drugs to the site.
LPS sent a statement by email saying the situations are handled on a case-by-case basis, and that there is currently no policy in place that prevents officers from arresting anyone found with drugs. However, police are cognizant of the reality of the situation, have discretion when it comes to the issue, and are expected to act in the public interest.
Other local business owners had mixed responses to the issue, but asked not to be identified.
One business owner likened the site to the city shelter, which they felt was important in helping people who need to use it, while being a facility that has degraded over time and had a detrimental effect on nearby businesses. The owner believed as long as the facility remains well maintained and run, there should not be an issue.
Last week during a city council meeting, George Kuhl, the City’s Planning Initiatives Manager, said the consumption site might be beneficial to efforts to clean up drug waste in the city core.
“One of the side benefits of that program is that the drug debris should be concentrated (at the consumption site),” he said, “So I think we should see a reduction in the downtown and in other parts of the city in terms of where that paraphernalia might accumulate.”
Mate took issue with that idea and said he was angered by it.
“Are we any less important than any other part of the city?” he asked. “I can’t believe we’ve just been railroaded by this.”
In a follow-up discussion, Kuhl clarified the City is not trying to move the problem to a different neighbourhood in order to clean up the downtown core.
“We don’t want the drug debris anywhere,” he said. “But we feel that people using that site will be leaving it at that location.”
Kuhl also said these issues take some time to sort out.
But Mate said he worries about what the future will bring.
“The biggest concern we have is when this thing gets full-blown going, how many people are going to be going in there every day?” he asked. “And how many are going to be walking out stoned and cruising our neighbourhood? That’s what we have to wait and see.
“This place just doesn’t belong in a business district. And it’s absurd for anybody to say this is a great location for it.”
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