Council gives nod to study injection sites

City councillors have given public health the green light to study the possibility of bringing safe injection sites to Hamilton.

The pitch for such a study was first made to the Board of Health earlier this year, in light of a deadly opioid crisis that has led to a spike in overdoses across the country.

In Ontario, where overdose deaths are the third-leading cause of accidental death, someone dies of an overdose every 13 hours.

“These are entirely preventable deaths,” says Dr. Jessica Hopkins, associate medical officer of health.

The Hamilton study was initially estimated to cost $250,000, but after some councillors expressed concern about the cost, public health staff established a partnership with McMaster University to get that cost down to $92,000.

Hopkins explained at Friday’s General Issues Committee (GIC) meeting that students will help conduct the research — a process that will begin in the new year and likely go until early 2018.

In order to even be considered for a safe injection site, a municipality must apply for an exemption under the federal government’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act — a tedious, paperwork-heavy endeavour. Mayor Fred Eisenberger agreed the study is a “prudent step” to take in the face of a crisis, particularly in light of the growing presence of fentanyl on our streets.

The potent painkiller, 100 times stronger than morphine, is typically prescribed in a patch. But bootleg versions — in powder and liquid form, as well as mixed into other drugs — have been popping up on the streets in unpredictable potencies. Of the province’s staggering 685 opioid-related deaths last year, 162 of them were specifically linked to fentanyl. In Hamilton alone there were 19 fentanyl deaths last year (up from 10 in 2014).

This fall, the city put out a survey to residents, asking for their views on safer injection sites. Of 1,690 respondents, 84 per cent said they would be supportive of having supervised injection sites here in Hamilton.

A site could either be a standalone service, or it could be integrated into existing harm reduction services offered in the city. Another option, Hopkins explained Friday, would be to offer mobile sites that could travel across the city based on need.

Drug use is a city-wide problem, Hopkins says, and no specific location has been identified yet for a site — though she noted that data from the needle retrieval program does show that the majority of discarded needles are found downtown in wards 2 and 3.

Ward 3 Coun. Matthew Green, who has been a vocal advocate of safe injection sites, stressed de facto injection sites already exist in secret across the city.