Calls grow for province to reopen Safepoint in city
Mother who lost son to overdose says consumption sites save lives
Kathy Moreland's son, his girlfriend, and four of their friends — all teenagers, and all dead from drug overdoses.
Moreland, who struggled for years to help her son Austin fight his addiction, joined a provincewide media conference Friday calling for the reopening of Windsor's supervised consumption site and others like it.
She found her son unresponsive in his room following a fentanyl overdose in 2020 the morning after his high school graduation.
“He knew the dangers because I had shared that with him,” said Moreland, a registered nurse and member of Moms Stop the Harm (Windsor), who was living in Kitchener when her son died.
“But he shared with me that using fentanyl felt like being hugged by an angel and it was so difficult to stop.”
The Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) hosted the online media event, which included advocates from Windsor and Sudbury, hoping to convince the provincial government to take immediate action in combating Ontario's “toxic drug crisis.”
Association CEO Doris Grinspun said that should begin with immediate funding to reopen Windsor's Safepoint and Sudbury's safe consumption site, and to keep the centre in Timmins operating.
The provincial government is refusing to provide funding for consumption and treatment services (CTS) sites at least until it completes a provincewide review.
Safepoint opened in April 2023 without provincial approvals under a federal exemption from Health Canada. The health unit started funding the site, expecting the province would step in by last summer, which didn't happen.
The local health unit closed downtown Windsor's Safepoint on Jan. 1 pending sustainable provincial funding.
In the time it was open, Safepoint staff “reversed” five overdoses, according to an annual report from the Windsor-essex Community Opioid and Substance Strategy.
The site in Sudbury closed in March because of a similar lack of funding.
“RNAO will keep fighting with those that need safe consumption sites until we achieve them,” said Grinspun.
The association said about 3,800 people, or 10 every day, died from drug poisoning last year in Ontario.
“They deserve help in the same way we help those who are battling with cancer, living with diabetes or have a heart condition,” said RNAO president Claudette Holloway.
“Consumption and treatment services sites, and supervised consumption services sites, are essential to front-line efforts to help save lives. And yet you will hear some have been forced to close their doors for lack of funding, while too many other communities wait to open their doors.”
Across the country, opioids killed more than 42,000 people between 2016 and 2023, according to the federal government.
“Safe consumption sites do not enable addiction,” said Moreland. “They save lives and they save taxpayers money.
“They provide access to social services, health care and counselling, reversal of poisonings, prevention of HIV and hepatitis, and hospital visits. They provide needle exchange and, most importantly, a caring environment where treatment options can be addressed.”
Moreland adopted Austin when he was one year old. Throughout his life, Austin struggled with mental health issues and issues from prenatal alcohol exposure and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
“When he was 16 he was introduced to meth by a well-meaning friend and he was immediately hooked,” said Moreland. “For two years he struggled to stop and we struggled as a family with the roller-coaster ride of his substance use. I would not wish that ride on anyone.”
In early 2020, at age 17, he started using fentanyl. Moreland said her son eventually asked for help and they tried to get him treatment.
“We were told he was too old for youth treatment and too young for adult treatment,” said Moreland. “Besides, no treatment centre in Ontario would admit him because of his FASD: `They don't do well in our programs.'
“I was told private clinics offered to take him in for $50,000 a month with no refund offered should he withdraw consent, which was likely given his anxiety.”
Moreland added that none of the private clinics they contacted were staffed to manage Austin's mental health issues.
“As a nurse who was accustomed to navigating other people's health issues, it was incredibly frustrating not to be able to get him the help I know he needed,” said Moreland.
So Austin tried to stop using fentanyl without professional help. For a month, it worked.
Following their drive-by high school graduation during the COVID-19 pandemic, Austin and his 16-year-old girlfriend took some fentanyl.
“The following morning, I found him unresponsive with no vital signs,” said Moreland.
“He survived on life support for two more days, but never regained consciousness. He died of fentanyl poisoning.”
Two weeks later, Moreland said her son's girlfriend also died in her home.
“And to my knowledge, four of his friends have also died under similar circumstances,” she said.
“All of them in their teens.”