Regina's newly approved safe consumption already making a difference: staff

People who work with drug users in Regina say a Health Canada approved safe drug consumption site in the city will save lives and help people move on from their addictions.

"They were already using drugs. We are just providing a space for them to use safely," Emile Gariepy, harm reduction manager at Nēwo-Yōtina Friendship Centre in Regina, told CBC's The 306.

Nēwo-Yōtina is now fully cleared by Health Canada to operate as a supervised consumption site, the first such facility in Regina and the second, behind Prairie Harm Reduction in Saskatoon, in the province.

The centre had been operating under a temporary exemption to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act given in response to an urgent public health need, according to Health Canada's website. The full exemption was granted on Dec. 27, 2024.

Meanwhile, the Saskatchewan Coroner Service released the latest confirmed and suspected drug toxicity deaths for 2024. There were 346 confirmed and suspected drug deaths in Saskatchewan last year, down 28.5 per cent from the 484 recorded in 2023.

It's the fewest drug deaths in the province since 2020, when the province recorded 325.

Of the confirmed overdose deaths, the vast majority were in Saskatchewan's two main cities. Regina recorded 77 overdose deaths last year, while Saskatoon had 68.

Health Canada's decision to grant safe consumption status to the Nēwo-Yōtina Friendship Centre provides more certainty for the centre's wâhkôhtowin harm reduction branch, which has been operating as an overdose prevention site since 2021. 

The designation means drug users have a safe place to use street drugs. A paramedic is on site to deal with overdoses and people are given drug testing kits so they can check for fentanyl or other substances they weren't expecting in their drug supply.

"When they are overdosing, we have a paramedic on site able to bring them back," Gariepy said.

He said paramedics are immediately able to deliver Naloxone, a drug used to reverse effects of an opioid overdose.

"We're not looking at people who overdose going into ICU because of brain damage from hypoxia."

In response to the Health Canada exemption status being announced last week, Saskatchewan's Ministry of Health put out a statement saying "No illicit drugs are safe, and there is no safe use of illicit drugs."