New plan for Winnipeg supervised consumption site a 'step in the right direction' says dad who lost son to OD
CBC
A Manitoba father who lost his son to a drug overdose is pleased to see the province is still planning to open a supervised consumption site in Winnipeg in the new year, after the government had to scratch the initial location for the facility in the face of stiff opposition.
"It's a step in the right direction," Chuck Neufeld told CBC News. "You can't just flip the switch and things are going to change, there has to be some give and take."
Neufeld's son, Sean, died in February 2021, days after he was released from a treatment centre. At the time, Sean had been consuming OxyContin, a synthetic analgesic drug, for about a decade after an injury at work and a number of prescriptions for pain relievers.
The father said his son got "a pull" for OxyContin. Similar to other drugs, it can be found on the streets where there are higher risks for it to be laced with stronger substances like fentanyl.
"This [supervised] consumption site, hopefully, will do the testing on what these people want or try to use and they can say, 'No, you shouldn't be using that because that's got [other substances] in there,'" Neufeld said.
"I wish they wouldn't use it completely, but this is the alternative."
During its third throne speech — the address that outlines the priorities of Premier Wab Kinew’s government for the coming legislative session — Manitoba's NDP government committed to opening a supervised consumption site in Winnipeg this January.
The province has said before that the facility would allow people to inject drugs, with staff on hand to respond to overdoses and guide people toward treatment. The centre wouldn't supply drugs but rather offer a space for supervised use.
"People are dying of overdose in their province all the time, this is one of the tools that doctors and addiction medicine tell us we'll help," Kinew told reporters at a news conference ahead of the throne speech on Tuesday.
Opposition Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan said residents in Winnipeg's Point Douglas neighbourhood and his party have spoken against the site. A public consultation should be respected and that could make it unfeasible to open the facility by January, he said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Addictions Minister Bernadette Smith said Aboriginal Health and Wellness is working with the province to follow the federal government's protocol and open an "urgent public health need" site first.
"This is an expedited process that will allow the site to be opened to address the meth crisis quickly," the statement said.
Urgent public health need sites are similar to supervised consumption sites. Both provide services related to drug use, but UPHNS are set on a temporary basis to respond to urgent needs in a specific community, according to Health Canada.
The health minister of a province or territory can authorize the opening of this kind of facility under an exemption if certain conditions are met — including the release of the name, location and services provided at the urgent public health needs within five days of its opening.
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