Who decides how people should lead their lives? Or which lives are more important than others?
In authorizing the decision to close all safe consumption sites within 200 meters of a school or daycare centre, Ontario premier Doug Ford has decided that some lives are not worth his money.
Ten of the province’s 23 supervised consumption sites are set to close as a result with no promise of being funded if they decide to relocate. These are places where people can safely consume drugs under trained supervision.
One particular site at Moss Park reversed 517 overdoses in 2023 is not near a school or daycare centre, but is having to close because a condo is coming up in its place. Ford had previously said he’s not going to fund any more supervised consumption sites, so the Moss Park site couldn’t relocate even if it wanted to.
Why? Because Doug Ford simply doesn’t “believe” in safe consumption sites. This year, he has gone on record to say: “They get to go up there (safer supply sites) and get endless, endless amounts of drugs and guess what they do? They go out and they sell it and get other people addicted and then they go out and get stronger drugs.”
I need some evidence please, Mr. Ford.
Safe consumption sites save lives
Contrary to Ford’s beliefs, study after study — including a government-commissioned report — have found that safe consumption sites should be available to people because they save lives. They prevent overdose deaths. They reduce calls to paramedics and ambulances, and also prevent more people from landing up at the hospital, making sure our public health system isn’t overwhelmed any further. According to this 2022 article from Bolt: “There has never been a reported overdose death in any official safe consumption site in the world.”
Doug Ford has called these sites a “failed policy.” According to him, the federal government is the “biggest drug dealer in the entire country.” A bit ironic given his own past of dealing drugs, but I digress.
By shutting these sites down, the government is essentially letting people die. And this is not hyperbole. People living with addiction will continue to consume drugs – whether Doug Ford likes it or not. Either they can be allowed to do it in a safe, clean space under supervision of trained staff, or they’ll do it out on the streets, in parks or other public areas where they may overdose and die.
Ontario’s growing inequality, a contributor to addiction
One doesn’t have to look far to see that people in Toronto and cities across the province are in need of help. And the group of people in need is growing. Encampments have proliferated, as has homelessness. So many people are on the brink. Groceries and rent have shot up, while wages haven’t. These are hard times.
No one wakes up one day choosing to become an addict. Addiction creeps up on you, and before you know it – the drug has more control and power over you.
The truth is that we’re all addicted to something – Instagram, cigarettes, exercising, alcohol, vaping, gambling, food. It’s just that some addictions are less harmful and more socially acceptable than other addictions. Acknowledging how perceptible we all are to addiction, shouldn’t we be supporting systems that help those who have found themselves entangled in highly dangerous addictions – drugs, in this case?
I welcome the government’s $378 million investment in 19 new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs. The government has said these places will offer addiction care, supportive housing and employment support. Great. However, they will not offer needle exchange programs or safe places to consume drugs.
We don’t get to decide what someone with addiction should do. Human beings are programmed, and change is not easy. The government doesn’t get to decide when it’s time to stop being addicted. If leaving addiction behind were so easy – 22 people on average wouldn’t be dying on the daily.
What I think Conservatives with their “pull yourself up by the bootstrap” mentality consistently fail to understand is this: Life happens. You don’t know what’s waiting for you around the corner, and how you’re going to respond to it. You might get laid off while having a whole family to support; you might lose a parent; get a serious illness; become disabled in a terrible accident; have a miscarriage, lose a child.
This is life happening. And ‘til life happens to us, we cannot say how we’ll deal with it. We don’t know how much mind control we may lose and what substances we may turn to.
Safe consumption sites should be seen as society’s offering of care and compassion to people suffering. These sites aren’t the only solution; and we need more affordable housing, treatment and recovery support services. But shutting consumption treatment services definitely takes us further away from the solution.
Tax-funded social services are a way of supporting one another because life could happen to us too. And when it does, I hope to have a government that does not leave me out to die; but instead gives me a safe and clean place to deal with my addiction, and recover and heal as I’m able to.
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Nick Seebruch, editor
