Supervised consumption site would make community safer: Turning Point

According to a new survey, a supervised consumption site in Red Deer would not only be utilized by local drug users, but would likely reduce crime and debris in the area.
 
The survey conducted by Turning Point and the Red Deer Coalition on the Opioid Crisis shows 85 per cent of 271 respondents would use a supervised consumption site if it were available.
 
That information and much more is being shared at a series of nine information sessions being held to give the public a chance to have their say on the future of supervised consumption in Red Deer. The coalition submitted a preliminary report to Alberta Health at the end of July and will forward the full results of a local needs assessment to the province by the end of September.
 
The province announced in May $30 million to fight the ongoing opioid crisis.
 
Sarah Fleck, interim Operations Manager at Turning Point, says residents have legitimate concerns, but there are many misconceptions.
 
“People are worried about increasing crime and increasing drug uses associated with the site. We’ve reviewed a lot of literature and research that’s come out of Europe where this has been happening for over 30 years and all of them conclusively find a decrease in needle debris, drug use paraphernalia and small crimes in the surrounding area,” she says. “It actually makes the community cleaner and a safer place to be.”
 
In addition to also diverting costs from hospital visits, policing and jails, Fleck adds that supervised consumption sites are neither a band-aid nor a fix-all solution.
 
“It’s just one part of a spectrum of service,” she explains. “People will come in and it will prevent overdose, but the bigger picture is it will connect them to nurses and other services such as housing and addictions treatment.”
 
Data collected by the coalition so far also found 75 per cent of those surveyed have smoked meth in a public place, 81 per cent have injected drugs in public, 48 per cent have witnessed needle sharing and 27 per cent had overdosed at least once by accident in the last six months, with the highest number of overdoses by one person being 11.
 
Fleck says the vast majority of Turning Point clients openly admit they’d rather not be using, but just can’t beat the addiction.
 
“We have people dying every single day in Alberta and that needs to stop — that’s a really tragic situation and supervised consumption servicing is an appropriate response,” she says. “There also needs to be additional treatment beds and easier access to opiate replacement therapy and increased access to addictions and mental health support. It’s one piece of the puzzle.”
 
The crowd of about a dozen at Tuesday’s session at Red Deer College also heard from a former local addict by the name of Keira who’s been clean for 18 months. Now 35, Keira began using around the age of 13 and believes he could’ve gotten help sooner had there been a supervised consumption site.
 
“A supervised consumption site is an opportunity to start cultivating a therapeutic relationship and to provide compassion for the using population,” he says. “It’s a chance for the people who are still in active use to find somebody with a compassionate and judgement free position towards them so that they can start looking for help.”
 
Once an IV user of cocaine and opioids, Keira is now attending school to become a Community Services Addictions Worker.
 
While the coalition is answering as much as it can at this point in time, some information simply won’t be available until consultations are complete, council gives its position and additional data is tabulated. Fleck says it’s unclear where a supervised consumption site would be or what it would necessarily look like, but she points out the day could come where Red Deer gets one and it isn’t enough, so a second could open.
 
According to statistics from Alberta Health, there were just six fentanyl-related overdose deaths in 2011 across the province. There were 363 in 2016 and based off first quarter numbers from this year, 2017 is on pace for around 470. 
 
Twenty-five opiate-related overdoses and one death have been reported to Turning Point just this month.
 
If you can’t attend one of the remaining sessions, or would like to register for any of them, you can email Turning Point at scsc@turningpoint-ca.org. 

Remaining meetings are scheduled for:

1) Thursday, August 10 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the Collicutt Centre
2) Tuesday, August 15 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Red Deer College
3) Wednesday, August 16 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the downtown library
4) Thursday, August 17 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at Johnstone Crossing AHS building
5) Tuesday, August 22 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Johnstone Crossing AHS building
6) Wednesday, August 23 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Collicutt Centre
7) Thursday, August 24 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the downtown library

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