How Toronto is grappling with the opioid crisis

Toronto is in the midst of a contaminated drug crisis and while supervised consumption services have been set up in parts of the city, the men and women invested in on-theground harm reduction believe the worsening problem isn’t being treated with the urgency and attention it needs.

Opioid overdoses claimed the lives of at least 308 people in the city last year. That figure comes through a tracking program initialized by Ontario’s previous Liberal government, which allows experts and the public an opportunity to review the number of opioid-related deaths, as well as overdoses that require hospitalization.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford campaigned on a promise to invest $1.9 billion over 10 years for people in need of mental health, addiction and housing supports. In Toronto, where the number of people who died from opioid overdoses between 2015 and 2017 has more than doubled and there is a severe shortage of affordable housing and mental health services, that promised support can’t come soon enough.

The size and scope of the problem prompted Toronto’s medical officer of health to call for the decriminalization of all drugs earlier this year, to increase the odds that people won’t be afraid to call for help.

Toronto, for its part, enacted an overdose prevention action plan and the city’s first supervised injection service opened up in a Toronto Public Health building last November. There are now four permanent locations across the city, as well as a number of overdose prevention sites — meant as a temporary option that could be set up quickly in areas where need is high.

Police officers, firefighters, library, shelter and Toronto Community Housing staff now also have access to Naloxone, a drug that reverses the lethal impact opioids can have on the part of the brain that controls breathing. That life-saving medication is available for free at drug stores and at harm-reduction sites across the city.

And while there is no immediate threat that all the safe-consumption sites will be shut down, a recent announcement by the province has provoked considerable anxiety around what truly the future holds.

Health Minister Christine Elliott announced Monday that a new service model for safe-consumption sites would be in place by early 2019. That means existing sites will be required to offer treatment and rehabilitation services and apply to do so. Elliott had announced in July that all safe-consumption programs would be under review, putting the brakes on three overdose-prevention sites yet to open in Ontario, including one in the city’s Parkdale neighbourhood.