Council to consider safe consumption site
Proposal to be made at meeting set for tomorrow night
By Dave Flaherty/The Oshawa Express
The case for bringing a safe injection site to Oshawa will be heard by city councillors this week.
Council will hear a presentation from Paul McGary, director of mental health and addictions and Joanne Gourgouvelis, senior lead opioid strategy at Lakeridge Health, Melissa Hutchinson, project manager at the Durham Region Health Department and Dianna Eastwood, executive director of the John Howard Society of Durham Region.
The council meeting is scheduled for Thursday (Feb. 21) at 6:30 p.m.
Information regarding the presentation was unavailable as of The Oshawa Express’ press deadline.
Last October, the provincial government announced it would continue to fund supervised injection and overdose prevention sites but changes to services were coming.
The terms “supervised consumption services” and “overdose prevention sites” have been replaced by “consumption and treatment sites.”
Supervised consumption sites, also known as safe-injection sites, are approved by the federal government. Overdose prevention sites are approved by the province under a federal exemption of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
These models are replaced by “consumption and treatment services.”
There are currently no approved consumption and treatment services sites in Oshawa.
However, support for applications of those sites was one of the 22 recommendations included in the Central East LHIN Opioid Strategy, approved by the LHIN’s board last March.
Lakeridge Health Oshawa opened the doors of its Rapid Access Addiction Medicine (RAAM) clinic on Jan. 30, 2018.
The clinic offers same-day, nearly immediate treatment for those suffering from withdrawal or looking to get assistance with their addictions.