Public-health experts had barely released a hefty report Wednesday urging Ontario to open five safe-injection sites for drug addicts when the province’s Health Minister weighed in.
Deb Matthews stressed that the province has no plans to implement the experts’ recommendations, as once again the forces of politics and science collide over the contentious idea of giving narcotic users a legal place to shoot up.
“We are always prepared to listen to good advice, and we make our decisions based on evidence,” Ms. Matthews said in a terse statement issued by her office less than half an hour after a press conference releasing the report. “[But] experts continue to be divided on the value of the sites.”
The report issued by Doctors Ahmed Bayoumi and Carol Strike on Wednesday has been billed as the most comprehensive yet produced on the topic. It calls for three sites in Toronto and two in Ottawa, predicting they could curb the incidence of HIV and hepatitis infections, the number of overdose deaths and the scope of needle use in public places.
“Toronto and Ottawa each have a significant number of people who use drugs,” said the report. “Supervised consumption facilities would be beneficial in both cities.”
