Poll takes pulse of injection sites

Majority of Torontonians surveyed agree with city’s plan to establish three supervised locations in the downtown core

Public approval of supervised injection sites in Toronto is at its highest since 2012, according to the results of a poll released Wednesday.

Torontonians’ opinion in favour of the sites appears to be growing as the city pushes forward with plans to establish three supervised injection sites downtown.

The majority of those polled, 57 per cent, agree with having supervised injection sites downtown, according to the Forum Research Inc. poll conducted over random telephone interviews Tuesday. Its results are based on a sample of 908 randomly selected Torontonians and are considered accurate plus or minus 3 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

Last year, a similar poll by the same company, found 43 per cent agreed with them and, in 2012, the approval rate was 44 per cent.

The poll sampled 908 residents and found that the younger, wealthier and better-educated people — as well as those in the downtown core, where the sites would be — supported them.

“It appears that harm reduction is more important to Toronto citizens than enforcement and prohibition,” said Lorne Bozinoff, Forum Research Inc. president, in a press release.

“The opioid crisis has become more critical just in the past year and has raised awareness of intravenous drug use.”

Bozinoff added that a change in attitude followed the change in federal government in the fall.

In announcing the sites’ plan earlier this month, city officials cited the new Liberal government, which supports it, as a spark for the initiative.

The Toronto-wide survey found 62 per cent of respondents aged 18 to 34 (the poll’s youngest age group) approved of the sites planned for the city’s downtown core.

It appears Toronto’s millennials aren’t the only progressive generation, as the poll’s oldest age group (65 and over) had the second-highest approval rate: 54 per cent.

It also found 65 per cent of respondents living in the former City of Toronto and East York supported the injection sites and 9 per cent were unsure, while 46 per cent of those polled from Scarborough were in favour and 20 per cent of them undecided.

According to the results, 64 per cent of Mayor John Tory voters polled also approve of the plan. As well, 69 per cent of respondents earning between $80,000 and $100,000 per year, are in favour.

Police Chief Mark Saunders is more cautious about the plan.

“Right now, it’s too early in the game,” he told reporters after the launch of a fentanyl awareness campaign by the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police on Tuesday. “I’m interested in the finer details because, at the end of the day, I have to operationalize something for the men and women, to make sure that the neighbourhood is safe, to make sure the city is safe.”

Overdose deaths continue to rise in the city and province in the past decade, to a point where experts are calling the issue a crisis. Data released Monday by the coroner’s office showed overdose deaths in Toronto had risen to 252 in 2014, the latest available statistics, a 22-percent increase since 2013, Councillor Joe Cressy said at the event.

“The reality, when it comes to overdoses, is an all-hands-on-deck approach is required,” Cressy told the Star. “Whether we’re talking about increasing access to naloxone, increasing awareness about the dangers of fentanyl use or implementing supervised injection services.” With files from Jennifer Pagliaro