Stronger drug supply worries overdose prevention workers
There is a change in the drug supply in Ottawa and it is beginning to scare those working to prevent overdoses, says an organizer with the pop-up supervised injection site set up in a Lowertown park.
“I am really worried by what I am seeing right now,” said Marilou Gagnon, associate professor of nursing at the University of Ottawa and an organizer of the site. “I am really scared as to what is going to happen to people on the streets.”
She said the numbers of atypical overdoses and other signs of a stronger drug supply confirm that there is a strong need for the pop-up site. Since the opening of a small Ottawa Public Health supervised injection site, there has been pressure on the site to close down. Organizers say they plan to remain until its services are no longer needed in the area.
“There are not enough people in this city right now to save lives when we see how powerful these drugs are right now.”
Last week, Gagnon said, volunteers at the site began seeing “atypical” drug reactions among some visitors, during which people’s bodies became rigid and unmovable, something often associated with the deadly drug carfentanil. During more typical overdoses, victims become limp and often fall over. In addition, she said, it was taking more than an hour to revive some clients after injecting.
“Something is happening in Ottawa,” she wrote on Twitter.
Last week, Health Canada confirmed the deadly drug carfentanil, in addition to fentanyl, was found in August in drugs seized in Ottawa.
Gagnon said what they have been seeing in recent days suggests the presence of fentanyl and perhaps carfentanil, but also a much stronger drug supply. Volunteers at the pop-up site, she said, administered naloxone twice in the past few days, and also have seen several clients who took up to 90 minutes to be able to walk away after injecting drugs. “We are very concerned.” There has been a surge in overdoses and a number of deaths in Ottawa since early this year, when fentanyl began showing up in the drug supply. During a recent weekend, there were three overdose deaths in the Ottawa area and those who work with the community say there are dozens of overdoses every month. Those numbers were the impetus for setting up the unsanctioned site in Raphael Brunet Park in late August.
When it opened, there were no supervised injection sites in the city. Health Canada has approved one at the Sandy Hill Community Centre, just off Rideau Street, but renovation work has delayed its opening until later this year.
Ottawa Public Health rushed to open a small supervised injection site in its building on Clarence Street in the market in response to growing numbers of overdoses during the summer.
Volunteers with the pop-up site, which has served more than 1,300 people since opening, have said they will continue to operate until they feel the need is met.
“We have been talking to Ottawa Public Health every week since we opened,” Gagnon said. “We collaborate and exchange information. We are both working in the same direction.”
Public health, she said, knows some users will never go to its site, which allows one user at a time and doesn’t allow for inhalation. The pop-up site allows people to be accompanied.
Ottawa Inner City Health, which operates some of its programs out of Shepherds of Good Hope, wants to open another supervised injection site nearby in the parking lot of the shelter. Officials there are hoping the trailer, with eight injection booths, will open by the end of this month.