Province to close 5 Toronto supervised drug consumption sites
CBC
Five supervised drug consumption sites are slated to close in Toronto after the provincial government announced a ban on such facilities near schools and child-care centres — a move that some harm-reduction experts are slamming as a "deadly mistake."
Health Minister Sylvia Jones made the announcement Tuesday at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference in Ottawa.
The new rules will force consumption and treatment service facilities within 200 metres of schools and child-care centres to close. Supervised consumption sites allow people to use drugs under supervision to reduce the risk of overdose.
A total of 10 supervised drug consumption sites in Ontario — five of which are in Toronto — will be shuttered no later than March 31, 2025, the province said in a news release Tuesday.
The other five sites that will be forced to close due to the new rules include one each in Ottawa, Kitchener, Thunder Bay, Hamilton and Guelph.
The closures will apply to four provincially funded consumption sites that include the following locations:
A fifth supervised consumption site that is self-funded will also close as a result of the ban:
Diana Chan McNally, a Toronto community worker and expert in harm reduction, said the province needs to rethink the move, saying the restrictions will only contribute to more deaths.
"This is a deadly mistake," Chan McNally said in an interview ahead of the announcement Tuesday.
"The fact that we are essentially leveraging zoning legislation to shut down life-saving services, arguing that it's in the best interest of children and [the] best interest of safety is actually ludicrous."
Zoë Dodd, a Toronto harm reduction worker, echoed her statements.
"This announcement, it's really serious," she said in an interview with CBC Toronto ahead of the announcement Tuesday. "We're playing politics with people's lives and the result of that will be death."
Dodd said many people in her life have died as a result of the toxic drug supply.
"You cannot treat your way out of that," she said.
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