Since four consumption and treatment services sites closed in Toronto last spring, community organizations face increased demand and residents have noticed a significant increase in public drug use. This is what was highlighted by Counc. Chris Moise (Toronto Centre) during the Toronto Board of Health meeting in March. The urgency for addressing this issue grew with the announcement of new funding cuts from the Ontario government.
The Moss Park and Fred Victor overdose prevention sites, the last two provincially funded locations in Toronto, received notice on March 16 to discontinue operations and transfer clients to their local HART hub.
Moise emphasized that further closures will hinder the city’s ability to collect critical data about the unregulated drug supply through Toronto’s Drug Checking Services, a free and anonymous service. Medetomidine, a tranquilizer used primarily by veterinarians to sedate animals, is being found in over 80 per cent of fentanyl samples, raising alarm because of its irresponsiveness to Naloxone. This combination of medetomidine and fentanyl increases the difficulty of reversing overdoses.
Emergency Medical Services (EMS) data shows an 82 per cent increase in Toronto for opioid-related toxicities, a trend experts warned would happen following site closures. With funding cuts, public health experts and frontline workers express serious concerns about what the consequences will be for community health.
In this episode, Local Journalist Mia Johnson talks to harm reduction worker and former Moss Park site user Akosua Gyan-Mante, who shares her reliance on these services for survival. Also featured is Dr. Dimitra Panagiotoglou, Canada Research Chair in Economics of Harm Reduction and an associate professor at McGill University in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health. Plus, NDP’s primary care critic and family doctor MPP Robin Lennox joins us, who calls the move to defund sites “irresponsible and deadly,” and Dr. Erin Knight, the president of the Canadian Society of Addiction Medicine and practicing addiction physician in Winnipeg, Manitoba.