With necessary government funding not coming through in time for the June 30th deadline, the safe drug injection site on Cedar Street North will stop offering that service.
It’s operated by the local branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association. Executive director Paul Jalbert says applications note a decrease in opioid deaths from 80 per one-hundred-thousand population to 60… and that is now closer to 50.
“We’ve seen that we’ve been able to do that at the site,” he remarks. “We’ve seen that we’ve been able to connect people to treatment. We’ve seen that we’ve been able to connect them to withdrawal management services. We know it’s a pathway to the start of better health to many of the individuals accessing that service.”
“These are services that are available in the community,” he continues, and we’ve seen the numbers and people showing up who need these other services as well. So we’re going to continue seeing people at the site.”