Supervised consumption site in Sudbury helps ensure users are ‘safe’
Sudbury's supervised consumption site has been open for almost two months. Officials said it's a low-barrier environment to help people who use drugs feel comfortable, supported, connected and safe.
"Supervised consumption services are for anyone who uses drugs. If you use drugs every day, if you use drugs once in a blue moon, anyone can have an adverse reaction due to the extreme toxicity of the illicit supply," said Amber Fritz, managing supervisor of the site for Reseau Access.
A harm reduction registered nurse said the site offers a non-judgmental environment.
"They can use drugs safely and not have to worry about being judged or shamed, that the people who are taking care of them are not looking down on them," said Veronica Mensah, a harm reduction registered nurse.
“We just care about people being safe -- people being alive.”
The Reseau Access Network is the service provider at the site. At this point, it's not releasing numbers on how many people have used the site for supervised consumption.
Nor will it say if anyone has been saved in an overdose situation. Staff cites the need to build trust with people who want to be sure they are not being tracked.
Officials said more men use the service than women.
The site distributes harm reduction supplies and now has free HIV self-testing kits for people who access services at the site.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Why wasn't the suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down over Canada?
Critics say the U.S. and Canada had ample time to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon as it drifted across North America. The alleged surveillance device initially approached North America near Alaska's Aleutian Islands on Jan 28. According to officials, it crossed into Canadian airspace on Jan. 30, travelling above the Northwest Territories, Alberta and Saskatchewan before re-entering the U.S. on Jan 31.

Thieves cut huge hole in Ottawa restaurant wall to get at jewelry store next door
An Ottawa restaurateur says he was shocked to find his restaurant broken into and even more surprised to discover a giant hole in the wall that led to the neighbouring jewelry store.
Rescuers scramble in Turkiye, Syria after quake kills 4,000
Rescue workers and civilians passed chunks of concrete and household goods across mountains of rubble Monday, moving tons of wreckage by hand in a desperate search for survivors trapped by a devastating earthquake.
New details emerge ahead of Trudeau-premiers' health-care meeting
As preparations are underway for the anticipated health-care 'working meeting' between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada's premiers on Tuesday, new details are emerging about how the much-anticipated federal-provincial gathering will unfold.
Quebec minister 'surprised' asylum seekers given free bus tickets from New York City
Quebec's immigration minister says she was 'surprised' to learn the City of New York is helping to provide free bus tickets to migrants heading north to claim asylum in Canada.
The world's deadliest earthquakes since 2000
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake shook Turkiye and Syria on Monday, killing thousands of people. Here is a list of some of the world's deadliest earthquakes since 2000.
Mendicino: foreign-agent registry would need equity lens, could be part of 'tool box'
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says a registry to track foreign agents operating in Canada can only be implemented in lockstep with diverse communities.
Vaccine intake higher among people who knew someone who died of COVID-19: U.S. survey
A U.S. survey found that people who had a personal connection to someone who became ill or died of COVID-19 were more likely to have received at least one shot of the vaccine compared to those who didn’t have any loved ones who had been impacted by the disease.
opinion | Don Martin: Alarms going off over health-care privatization? Such an out-of-touch waste of hot political air
The chances Trudeau's health-care summit with the premiers will end with the blueprint to realistic long-term improvements are only marginally better than believing China’s balloon was simply collecting atmospheric temperatures, Don Martin writes in an exclusive column for CTVNews.ca, 'But it’s clearly time the 50-year-old dream of medicare as a Canadian birthright stopped being such a nightmare for so many patients.'