Resident against consumption site

Petition started despite assurances made by medical officer of health

The organizer of a new online petition to stop a supervised drug consumption site from ever coming to Peterborough says that such a site would attract drug addicts to the city.

“A safe injection site will bring more people into Peterborough with addictions, ultimately adding to the amount of drug users in the city,” wrote Mackenzie Darrington in a message to The Examiner on Wednesday.

Darrington’s petition on change.org aims to collect 200 signatures, after which time she writes she will deliver it to Peterborough-Kawartha

MPP Dave Smith.

As of Wednesday night, it had 108 signatures.

Meanwhile, the medical officer of health doesn’t agree with Darrington.

Dr. Rosana Salvaterra says there is research showing the centres save lives without increasing drug use or crime, and that a site doesn’t attract addicted people.

“Some of this research specifically shows that people won’t travel far for these services, so it is crucial they are available in the community where the people are already located,” Salvaterra wrote in an email.

As of last week, there had been 17 deaths in Peterborough suspected to have been from opioid poisonings.

For more than a year, Salvaterra,

Smith and others have been working to apply for approval and funding from the provincial government for a supervised drug consumption and treatment centre.

Smith emphasizes that there must be a treatment component to the centre or the provincial government won’t fund it.

He also said in an interview Wednesday that the work to apply for a centre is ongoing, with “one of the biggest challenges being finding a suitable location.”

The site needs a willing landlord, plus the site must be near downtown — but nowhere near a park or a school.

The lack of real estate options sounds like a cop-out to Alex Bierk, an artist, advocate and recovering addict.

“That’s such an answer to justify the inaction,” Bierk said.

People locally are using drugs “in a precarious way” in their vehicles, homes and in back alleys, Bierk said — often alone, with no one to revive them in case of a poisoning.

As for Darrington’s idea that a centre would attract more addicts to Peterborough, Bierk disagrees.

“That’s just not the case,” he said. “We already have them (people with addictions) here.” Darrington is skeptical.

“If individuals (out of town) see a place they can use drugs they will go there,” she wrote. “I do not believe Peterborough will be able to accommodate all drug users who will visit the sites.”