SUDBURY -- Public health officials in Sudbury are continuing their search for a safe and supervised drug consumption site.
According to Josée Joliat, a Mental Health and Addictions Public Health Nurse in Sudbury, the site must meet certain criteria.
Some of the criteria includes being in the city’s downtown with the location required to be close to other resources and services that clients use. It also needs to be easily accessible for paramedics if they’re needed.
“When the period to submit applications closed, we ended up getting some communities members who came forward and also identified an interest in hosting these services,” said Joliat.
“Réseau Access Network, the lead agency for this project is currently meeting with those landlords, so hopefully one of those added sites may be the location we need for these services.”
There is no timeline on the project but Joliat told CTV News that finding a spot remains a top priority.
“From a community drug strategies point-of-view, this is definitely one of our top priorities.”
“We are continuing as much as we can with moving the process forward and making sure that although due diligence is done, that we get this project going as quickly as possible,” added Joliat.
As the opioid crisis continues to devastate communities across in the country, including Sudbury, there is urgency to get a safe consumption site opened.
“The harms of opioid use, those numbers keep increasing,” said Joliat.
“That’s something that’s happening everywhere. It’s not just in Sudbury. But we know that we definitely need to put some interventions in place.”
When a location is determined, the provincial and federal governments both have to approve the site.
Currently there are 19 safe consumption sites in the province. There are none in northeastern Ontario.
