SAFE INJECTION SITE COMING?
Agencies hope to curb overdoses
Longtime tattoo artist Andrew Steptoe isn’t easily shocked. But what he has encountered in a charred, vacant building next door to his new shop in the 800 block of Wyandotte Street East has left him speechless.
On a daily basis he picks up between 25-50 used needles off the floor of the crumbling structure, which sits around the corner from Begley Public School, next to Tim Hortons and across the street from Holy Family Chaldean Church. Addicts use the building every day to inject drugs. “Yesterday, there were seven of them in here,” Steptoe said as he stood inside the building. “They bust through the door and shoot up in here, out of the public eye. “My son is 12 and he gets curious. If he comes in here he could step on a needle. There’s a school a block away and I see hundreds of kids walk by here every day. It’s dangerous for them.”
It’s partially for that reason the Windsor Essex Community Health Centre and AIDS Committee of Windsor have made a joint application to the Ministry of Health to open a temporary safe injection site locally for drug users. The hope is to get the users away from the streets, alleys and vacant buildings across Windsor. The application for an overdose prevention site would allow users to inject under supervision, which will cut down on overdoses, dispose of needles properly and make available community connections for those wishing to overcome their drug addictions, said Patrick Brown, executive director for the community health centre. “One of the main pillars in our opioid strategy is harm reduction,” he said. “The main objective of the site is prevention of overdoses. You don’t want somebody alone and injecting drugs with a dose higher than they thought.
“The secondary objective includes education, treatment options and making sterile supplies available.”
The joint application is one of 16 across Ontario. A ministry decision isn’t expected until some time after the June 7 provincial election. If approved, it would initially be for a six-month period. “If you have a safe injection site, at least you will see fewer overdoses,” Steptoe said. “All these needles won’t be lying around for kids to step on. That’s a start.”
The location for the site would be part of a building already occupied by Street Health in the 700 block of Pelissier Street. Roughly 90 per cent of funding to support the site would come from the Health Ministry, with the rest coming from the community health centre and AIDS committee, Brown said.
The site would operate from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. on weekends. It would be staffed by those trained in addiction support with an added medical person on site or on call. If ministry approval is granted, there will be community and neighbourhood information sessions held before opening, Brown said.
“We will ensure our clients be responsible when they leave the site, not be loitering around and be respectful to the neighbourhood,” he said.
Michael Brennan, executive director for the AIDS committee, noted how the overdose rate for the Windsor and Essex County area has essentially doubled in recent years.
There’s a school a block away and I see hundreds of kids walk by here every day. It’s dangerous for them.
Most recent numbers show there were 51 overdoses reported over the first two quarters in 2017, according to Essex Windsor EMS. There were 27 reported deaths related to opioid use between January and October of last year. “We have one of the higher overdose rates regionally compared to other areas,” Brennan said. “So, there is definitely a need here for an overdose prevention site.
“(With a site) you can provide oversight to folks coming in. It would provide a formal structure to support them with education and treatment. You’re talking about saving people’s lives at the end of the day.” Windsor police support the opening of an overdose prevention site, said Sgt. Steve Betteridge. “We support any measure that would help cut down on the number of overdoses and death,” he said. “We also support helping people with their addictions and finding treatment. That’s always the best preferred action.” He believes the proposed location for the overdose prevention site on Pelissier Street would work given that it’s in the core and easy to reach for those with addictions.