Mac students ask city to press Elliott on injection sites

Say research shows their worth, want city to appeal to health minister

McMaster medical students are turning to city hall to help establish a supervised injection site in Hamilton.

The lobby effort comes amid uncertainty as Premier Doug Ford’s new provincial government weighs the value of such sites amid an opioid epidemic.

Debbie Brace, a second-year medical student, says plenty of evidence attests to their worth.

“It’s hard to say these sites don’t save lives — simply put,” Brace, a vice-president with the McMaster Medical Student Council, said Monday.

However, the political climate at Queen’s Park is muddying that clear mountain of evidence, she suggested.

“I think there are a lot of loud voices that can decry drug use. What that doesn’t target is that addiction is not a choice and that people are trying to stop hurting, essentially.”

The group of roughly 20 McMaster medical students wants city council to write Health Minister Christine Elliott in support of supervised injection sites. They hope to make their case at the city’s board of health meeting Sept. 17 and plan to write Elliott directly.

Hamilton doesn’t have a permanent supervised injection service, but De dwa da dehs nye>s Aboriginal Health Centre and Wesley Urban Ministries have submitted applications to Health Canada. Ottawa grants exemptions under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to allow illicit drug use at the sites. The province provides funding.

Hamilton has been hit hard by the opioid epidemic. Last year, 87 people died of opioid overdoses here. In Hamilton, the opioid-related death rate was 15.3, while provincewide, the rate was 8.9. In June, the Shelter Health Network and its partners opened a temporary overdose prevention site at Urban Core, a community health agency on Rebecca Street, to help stem the tide. So far, the main substances have been crystal meth and fentanyl, a powerful painkiller, Dr. Robin Lennox, a physician with the network, noted Monday. In total, there have been 11 overdoses. All were treated on-site, not requiring ambulances. In June, there were 112 clients, a tally that climbed to 295 in July and 332 in August.

“There still are a lot of new people coming,” Lennox said.

But the temporary service’s $116,300 in provincial funding from the previous Liberal government runs dry Nov. 30. A permanent site isn’t likely before then, so the health network will “definitely be applying” for an extension, Lennox said.

But approval is far from certain.

During his campaign, Ford said he was “dead against” supervised injection sites. And last month, the Progressive Conservatives put new temporary sites in St. Catharines, Toronto and Thunder Bay on hold to review their “merit.”

The Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario immediately pushed back.

“Will the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care ... be doing the same thing with intensive care units and emergency services to see if they offer value?” the association wrote in an open letter to the minister in August.

London’s temporary overdose prevention site, the first in Ontario, was scheduled to run its course by Aug. 15, but local officials have secured an extension until the end of September.

That’s when Elliott’s review is expected to wrap up.

The idea is to continue until March, noted Shaya Dhinsa, manager of sexual health at the Middlesex-London Health Unit.

“I feel hopeful because we already got an extension.”

London also has two permanent sites in the works. The previous provincial Liberals approved funding in May, but whether the Ford government follows through remains to be seen, Dhinsa said.

“It’s kind of an odd scenario. We can have all of this, but where does the government sit?”

Health Canada is still reviewing those applications as well.