What is harm reduction and how is it supposed to work?

The opposition to Charlottetown's Community Outreach Centre and a proposed supervised consumption site has been vocal.

Residents complain about public drug use and discarded needles, and harm reduction programs have come under fire by some city councillors.

The heart of the issue is how to help P.E.I.'s increasingly visible population of drug users — and whether drug use is a public health issue at all.

Dr. Heather Morrison, P.E.I.'s chief public health officer, says harm reduction isn't just about drug use or preventing the spread of disease.

"It includes putting your seatbelt on. It includes wearing a helmet when you are going out on a bicycle," she said. "This is to reduce the risk associated with activities you are going to be doing anyway."

When it comes to drug use and addiction, a harm-reduction approach doesn't mean getting people to stop taking drugs. It recognizes that people are going to use drugs and simply aims to limit the risks.

That means things like handing out clean needles to stop the spread of disease, distributing Naloxone to reverse the effects of an overdose, or running a supervised consumption site where people can use drugs and get them tested.

But Morrison said harm reduction is just one piece of the puzzle.

"We talk about really the importance of three things: prevention, treatment and harm reduction. You can't have one on its own, it's really important to have all three. So it's not an either-or," she said.

"We know those individuals who use an overdose prevention site are more likely to get linked into treatment and the evidence would support that in many different peer-reviewed articles."

Supervised consumption sites are places people can bring their drugs to get tested for things like fentanyl, and take drugs in a place where they're supervised by people who know what to do if there's an accidental overdose. Staff vary from site to site but can include nurses, peer support and social workers.

It's also a way to connect people to things like addiction treatment if they want. 

"It will save lives. So decrease the number of fatal overdoses, but also it will decrease public substance use," Morrison said. "It's not going to solve everything but it is one important piece."

Opioid-related deaths are at an all-time high. In the first half of 2023, there were 3,970 deaths reported across Canada. On P.E.I., 14 accidental opioid-related overdoses were reported in that same time. Two of those people died.