Sudbury's drug consumption site to stay open in March but won't continue fundraising efforts

The safe drug consumption site in Greater Sudbury has enough anonymous donations to stay open for another month, but won't be seeking more money from the community past that point.

Heidi Eisenhauer, executive director of Reseau Access Network, which oversees the project, says the uncertainty means all but one staff member have left The Spot for other jobs. 

"It's not sustainable to ask someone to wait till the 15th of every month to ensure their employment," she said. "Nursing, paramedics and social workers are all in high demand.

"Overdose response is a specialized field. We're in a place where we no longer have the full contingent of health care professionals we need in order to not call an ambulance."

Eisenhauer said Reseau Access Network has had to shift resources from other programming to help fill in the vacancies at The Spot as it grapples with an uncertain future and this approach is not sustainable.

The Spot opened its doors in the October 2022 thanks to city tax dollars. 

When municipal funding dried up last December, local mining giant Vale donated $75,000 to keep the doors open throughout January and other community donations helped it continue its work through February. 

Reseau Access Network has been waiting to hear back from the province on its funding application submitted more than two years ago. 

The province, however, paused all funding applications last fall after a 44-year-old woman was killed by a stray bullet outside a supervised consumption site in Toronto's east end.

Meanwhile, northern Ontario cities like Sudbury continue to have the highest opioid death rates in the province.

According to preliminary data from Public Health Sudbury and Districts, 72 people from the Sudbury and Manitoulin districts died from opioid-related poisoning between January 2023 and October 2023. 

This represents an annualized mortality rate of 41.4 deaths per 100,000 population, compared to Ontario's average overall 16.7 deaths per 100,000 population per year. 

In a press release, The Spot says there were 330 visits to the site in January, and over 400 supervised drug consumptions. It adds that since opening in October 2022, The Spot has experienced an increase in visits each month.

The supervised consumption site in Timmins is in a similar situation as The Spot.