Toronto Harm Reduction Alliance Moss Park Supervised Injection Site

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thujone

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http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/toronto/overdose-prevention-site-allowed-1.4245270

'The crisis supersedes that': Police allow unsanctioned injection site in Moss Park
The site, to be staffed by nurses, was opened by harm reduction workers in response to spike in drug overdoses

A newly-erected tent large enough for a handful of people, some chairs and a pile of overdose-prevention medication now stands in Moss Park, placed there by harm reduction workers who risked arrest Saturday in hopes the pop-up injection site can save lives.

After a spate of overdoses that has left several dead this month already, organizer Matt Johnson of the Toronto Harm Reduction Alliance, an advocacy network pushing for drug policy changes, said it was time to act — with or without the city's permission.

...

Staffed by a registered nurse, overdose prevention trainers eager to share life-saving skills, and outreach workers tasked with scouring the park for used needles, the tent will welcome anybody who wants to use drugs and administer naloxone, the anti-overdose medication, to those who need it.

...

Run exclusively by volunteers, workers have 140 overdose kits on hand — a mix of injection and nasal spray kits, each containing latex gloves and multiple doses of naloxone. Organizers also plan to distribute kits containing clean needles and crack pipes to reduce the transmission of infections.

...
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good to see the community and police in support of it
 
This is great! I lived in Vancouver during the height of my heroin and cocaine addiction, Insite saved my life! I'm glad Toronto is getting going on thee SIS's. How bad is the heroin situation in Toronto? It doesn't seem to be anything like Vancouver
 
Toronto rushes to open interim supervised drug-use sites
Jeff Gray
The Globe and Mail
August 14th, 2017

After a wave of overdose deaths, Toronto public health officials are scrambling to open interim supervised drug-use sites, including one in a harm-reduction clinic near Yonge-Dundas Square that could be operating within days.

The move, announced by the city’s medical officer of health on Monday, comes after volunteer front-line workers and activists set up a controversial pop-up supervised drug-use site in an east-end park. The group, calling itself the Toronto Harm Reduction Alliance, says the city has been dragging its feet in responding to the opioid crisis.

Mayor John Tory and public-health officials have pledged to step up their efforts in recent days as reports of deaths from opioid overdoses made headlines, promising to speed up work on its planned three supervised sites. The sites will allow drug users to shoot up in the presence of a nurse, and the anti-overdose drug naloxone will be on hand in case something goes wrong.

On Monday, Eileen de Villa, the city’s medical officer of health, told reporters officials are still working as quickly as they can to get the three permanent sites ready to open this fall. But she said they now hope to open interim sites at the three clinics – The Works at Yonge-Dundas Square, the South Riverdale Community Health Centre and the Queen West Central Toronto Community Health Centre – as soon as possible.

Officials say an interim site at The Works, Toronto Public Health’s own clinic, should be ready within a week. It was not clear how soon those at the two independent health centres would open. Dr. de Villa defended the time it was taking the city to open its supervised drug-use sites, saying the clinics need to be retrofitted to ensure safety for both patients and staff.
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Read the full story here.
 
vancity said:
How bad is the heroin situation in Toronto? It doesn't seem to be anything like Vancouver
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Yeah, the fentanyl- and fentanyl-analogue-related deaths have been highly concentrated in B.C. and Alberta. Toronto hasn't been hit nearly as hard (yet, at least).
 
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