Rash of deaths prompts new calls for overdose prevention sites

TORONTO — An advocacy group says a recent string of overdose deaths in a pocket of Canada’s most populous city highlights the need for new overdose prevention sites.

The Toronto Overdose Prevention Society is calling on the province to reverse a decision to pause the opening of such sites, a move detailed by the health minister earlier this week.

Toronto police rang alarm bells about the overdoses on Tuesday night, saying there had been seven deaths in the force’s densely-populated 14 Division over a 12-day span.

Investigators attribute the deaths to the opioids fentanyl and carfentanil — synthetic painkillers far more potent than heroin.

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott has said that the government would make a decision on the fate of the overdose prevention sites, as well as more permanent facilities aimed at fighting the opioid crisis, by the end of September.

Overdose prevention sites are approved by the province and are temporary facilities set up to address an immediate need in a community, while safe injection sites are more permanent locations approved by the federal government after a more extensive application process.

Meantime, Toronto Mayor John Tory pointed to such sites as one of the ways “all three governments” are working on addressing the opioid epidemic.

“Until we decide as a country and as a province and as a city that we’re going to come to grips with the problem of mental health and addictions ... we are going to continue to see this kind of thing happen,” he told reporters on Wednesday.