Increase Provincial Support for Overdose Prevention Sites

Hon. Christine Elliott
Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
Hepburn Block, 10th Floor
80 Grosvenor Street
Toronto, ON M7A 2C4
christine.elliott@pc.ola.org

Dear Minister Elliott,

We are York University nursing students writing in response to the announcement made on October 22, 2018 regarding the replacement of the existing supervised consumption sites (SCS) and overdose prevention sites (OPS), with the new “Consumption and Treatment Services” (CTS). This will create further unnecessary barriers for the disenfranchised individuals who benefit from SCS and OPS. We are particularly concerned about the abolishing of OPS, a low-barrier lifesaving service created to address the ongoing opioid crisis which has vastly affected various regions of Ontario. There are several benefits to these sites, which will be discussed throughout this letter, that greatly outweigh the risks, and we believe that many of these so-called risks or consequences are in fact created due to public misinformation.

OPS provide easy-to-access, harm reduction services to individuals, in an environment that is free of stigma and judgement. They offer services including supervised injection, sterile supplies, and overdose prevention, intervention and education. The proposed CTS appear to be a highly rigid, medicalized, and bureaucratic substitution, that does not follow the principles of harm reduction at all. OPS save lives by reducing the number of fatal overdoses and decreasing infection and blood-borne infections. They also provide accessible healthcare services to marginalized populations that would otherwise go unrecognized, and encourages the use of detoxification and treatment programs as well. Contrary to popular belief, OPS also assist in reducing crime, and creating safer environments by minimizing the quantity of used needles and open drug use on the streets. Lastly OPS serve to reduce costs for the health, social and correctional systems, benefiting just about everyone.

Thus, it is evident that there are numerous benefits to OPS that assist individuals in accessing appropriate healthcare, while minimizing drug related infection, death, and costs. By endorsing CTS, this will be taken away from the people that need it the most and employ additional irrelevant wait times and regulations, thus imposing upon the safety of vulnerable community members. We urge you to reconsider this decision. Human lives are at risk.

Sincerely,

York University Nursing Students