Windsor Star

OVERDOSE PREVENTION RALLY

Protesters want to help local addicts

- TREVOR WILHELM twilhelm@postmedia.com twitter.com/WinStarWil­helm

Protesters demanding Windsor allow an overdose prevention site set up a mock station outside city hall on Friday, complete with syringes and meth pipes.

“We’re not asking to do anything wrong here,” said Brandon Bailey, a recovering addict and member of the Windsor Overdose Prevention Society.

“A site like this is something that is a life-saving service. It’s basically a first-aid tent. All we’re asking is for the police to work with us and be able to let it happen, knowing that people are dying. This could be the difference between a life saved or not.”

About two dozen people showed up at the lunchtime rally, organized following four fatal overdoses within a 24-hour period earlier this month.

Along with a bullhorn and handmade signs, rally organizers erected a fully stocked and functional overdose prevention site in the shadow of city hall to give the public an idea of what one looks like. Set up under a tent, it consisted of tables lined with naloxone kits and all the tools needed to take heroin, crack and meth, except for the actual drugs.

“The only difference between that and an unsanction­ed site you would have seen in Toronto or any other city where they’ve been set up is we’re not allowed to use ours,” said Bailey. “So the purpose of this rally is to bring together community support and be able to show people what a fully stocked site looks like.”

The society recently had a mock site set up outside Victoria Manor for about a week, but they removed it because neighbours complained. Bailey said a few people came by the tent asking if they could take drugs there. “We told them they weren’t allowed,” he said.

“It was definitely dishearten­ing to have to say that to somebody knowing that they could have then walked from there to an alley and used, and they could have been dead at that point.”

Bailey said Windsor police made it clear that drug use would not be tolerated at the tent.

“We were told by the Windsor police that if anybody was to use inside the tent that they would be arrested,” he said. “As well, they would arrest us for giving people a dwelling to be able to use.” Windsor police Chief Al Frederick has said he doesn’t support a legally sanctioned supervised injection centre, let alone an unsanction­ed overdose prevention site. Supervised injection sites have had “mixed results” in other cities, he said earlier this week. “The results that I’ve been made aware of come from Toronto and Vancouver,” Frederick said. “The crime rate in the immediate vicinity around supervised injection sites have gone off the charts as far as increase in violent crime, property crime, that sort of thing. “That’s not something that I want for our police service to deal with, or our community,” he added. “So I do not support them for that reason. In a 300-metre radius, crime rates in those other communitie­s have gone up hundreds of per cent. That’s not something I endorse.”

Bailey said “that’s not true at all.” He cited several studies from existing sites in other cities showing the sites don’t cause even an uptick in crime.

“It does not increase crime at all,” said Bailey. “It usually stays about the same. It doesn’t decrease but it doesn’t increase. Anybody that says that, it’s more just a fearbased answer than it is a reality.” Bailey, who said he’s faced the harsh reality of losing many friends to drug addiction, has suffered through his own share of overdoses.

“I’ve been there,” he said. “Luckily, I had friends watching for me that were able to make sure that I lived. If it wasn’t for those friends, then I wouldn’t be here either,” he added.

“The response we’re getting from the community of people who use drugs is amazing. It’s sad to tell them that we can’t do it yet.”

 ??  ??
 ?? DAN JANISSE ?? Stephanie Van Watteghem holds up a sign as Windsor police officers stand by during a rally sponsored by the Windsor Overdose Prevention Society in front of city hall on Friday.
DAN JANISSE Stephanie Van Watteghem holds up a sign as Windsor police officers stand by during a rally sponsored by the Windsor Overdose Prevention Society in front of city hall on Friday.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada