Cambridge group urges region: Go slow on safe injection sites
But public health advocates worry that putting plans on hold could mean lives lost in opioid crisis
CAMBRIDGE — When it comes to supervised injection sites, Dan Clements and Rick Hilborn don’t consider themselves naysayers.
However, the Cambridge men — who are part of the grassroots group A Better Cambridge — have serious concerns with a possible site in Cambridge.
“Slow down, don’t rush into it,” said Hilborn. Consider treatment-based alternatives before committing to a supervised injection site, members of the group say.
“If there has to be a SIS (supervised injection site) here, how do you manage it?” Clements said. “We fear a SIS site becoming a drug zone. It’s a drug zone we don’t want to create.”
Region of Waterloo Public Health has been tasked with examining the issue and is wrapping up a feasibility study into possible locations. Focus groups were held and the results of the study will be presented to regional council in the new year.
Supporters of supervised injection sites say they will provide a safe, clean space for people to use their own drugs under the care of trained staff. The sites will reduce overdose rates, reduce transmission of diseases, help drug users connect with services and treatment and stop used needles from being discarded in public places, they say.
“It’s the not the be all and end all solution,” Waterloo Regional Police Chief Bryan Larkin told a regional social services committee meeting last week.
“It’s one part of the public health strate-
gy,” said Larkin, who supports harm reduction as a philosophy that means limiting the dangers to users.
Public health advocates worry that putting the sites on hold could mean more lives are lost in an escalating opioid crisis.
Locally, 65 people have died of opioid overdoses this year — 29 in Kitchener, 27 in Cambridge and nine in Waterloo.
Robert Crossan, deputy chief for regional paramedic services, said that by the end of the year, paramedics will have responded to about 700 opioid-related calls.
Those against safe injection sites worry about increased drug activity with dealers preying on the vulnerable and hanging around outside the locations.
Members of A Better Cambridge say they have seen the drug activity for themselves.
They went to Toronto’s supervised injection site and spoke to administrators and sat across the street at a coffee shop watching what they called drug dealing.
“We have seen drug dealing right outside. We don’t want that here,” Hilborn said.
“The public doesn’t understand it or what it means.”
Clements said that even within the group there are members against the site and others in favour, but the majority is in the “mushy middle.”
The men say they are concerned that a supervised injection site will only create more problems for a city trying to cope with a growing drug problem. They are also worried about where it will be and are adamantly against it opening on Main Street where the public health office is located.
“As we have learned more, we have migrated to having more concerns,” Clements said.
The group wants all the players — public health, regional government, police and other agencies such as the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network — to slow down and look at other alternatives, including treatment for users.
“There seems to be a rush to deploy SIS (supervised injection sites),” Clements said.
“It’s so important to slow down,” Hilborn added.
The men said they would rather have smaller, possibly mobile sites, not one site.
They say that as residents they feel their quality of life and their safety could be at risk.
“Shouldn’t something as serious as this have a community impact group?” Clements said.
Clements said he wants to know what the impact of a supervised injection site will be on the people who live in the community.
Hilborn, who’s operated Hilborn Pottery in Galt for 35 years, said it’s commonplace to see people passed out in a nearby parking lot.
Recently, he walked a female employee to her car because a man, who looked to be in distress, was standing near her car. Hilborn asked him if he was OK or needed help and he said he didn’t need assistance.
“He wasn’t dangerous but my employee felt uncomfortable,” Hillborn said.
Hilborn and Clements say they are a microcosm of the public. They have questions and concerns and they want engagement on an issue that could transform the core area.
The group will hold a public meeting at the Dunfield Theatre on Wednesday.
Speakers include a university professor, the police chief, a public health manager, a city manager and a member of the region’s crime prevention council.
“We want to get out good, solid information,” said Clements.
Speakers at Wednesday’s forum will address the meeting for a few minutes and the majority of the time will be spent on questions from the group, and an open session for questions from the public.
At the end of the meeting, the group plans to ask for a show of hands on support for a supervised injection site.
“We want to send a message to the system from the public,” Hilborn said.
The group was created in the summer after local residents were concerned about issues of safety and security in the downtown core. The issues included discarded needles on trails and near schools, and people sleeping in makeshift areas near trails and parks.
Clements lives in a condo building on Water Street near the Bridges shelter and said it was common to see drug dealing outside the building and people breaking into the underground parking.
“We used to report it but we don’t anymore,” Clements said. “We thought something has to change.”
The group organized and soon found out that to be part of the change they had to immerse themselves in learning all they could about the topic.
They joined Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig’s task force on opioid use and public health’s harmreduction working group.
“The system is open to citizens and you can get involved,” Clements said. “They are all ears.”
Cambridge councillors Frank Monteiro and Mike Mann, both retired Waterloo Regional Police officers, are planning to visit existing supervised injection sites in Toronto, Ottawa and possibly Vancouver in January and report their findings to council.
As an officer for 35 years, Monteiro, who worked as a road sergeant in Galt, said drug users are not the criminals.
“They do this to feed the beast. It’s the addiction,” he said.
Monteiro said some users find themselves committing crime to get money to buy drugs.
He, too, worries about drug traffickers “preying” on safe injection sites.
He agrees that more needs to be done on treatment and that the federal and provincial governments must offer help.
“I’m scared about these SIS places. Once they are established, we can never take them away,” Monteiro said.
But he says he will do the research and ask questions.
“We need to know the good, the bad and the ugly before we make a decision,” he said.
“Let’s not get stuck on a timeline. Let’s do our homework and get the facts.”
Larkin says police are in “precarious” position in the midst of the opioid crisis.
They are front-line responders tasked with enforcing the law and they focus their energies on stopping drug traffickers.
But there are the demands on the police with officers responding to more than 6,000 calls for unwanted persons.
These calls are often connected to homelessness and substance abuse, he said.
“We will never arrest our way out of this public health crisis,” Larkin told councillors.
Larkin said police have changed their mindset when it comes to people doing drugs.
“We have eliminated the (term) addict and use the word user. We are focused on the distributor,” he said.
“We have to change the dialogue. If we had 65 deaths on our roadways, there would be an outcry.”
Clements and Hilborn said they support helping users and Cambridge likely needs more social service supports like the ones Kitchener has, including places such as The Working Centre.
“We want to help people who are in need. We don’t want to turn our back on them,” Hilborn said.
“Our focus is the public safety and quality of life while supporting people. It’s not mutually exclusive.”