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Leslie Hill, executive director, HIV Community Link in Calgary is part of group responsible for seeing a new safe drug consumption site established in Medicine Hat that could be operating by the end of the year.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com @MHNGillianSlade
A new safe consumption site will be established in Medicine Hat with nearly $1 million already granted to cover initial costs.
A start-up grant of $900,000 from Alberta Health has been received by HIV Community Link in Calgary, which is working with numerous local stakeholders.
“That’s to find the right space and to do the capital improvements necessary in the space … and for the hiring of staff initially and their training to get it up and running,” and Leslie Hill, executive director. “Our goal is to have the service up and running by the end of this calendar year.”
Although a site has not been established yet the idea is to be positioned where there are higher-than-average callouts for emergency services for opioid overdoses, said Hill. People using drugs are not inclined to travel much more than a kilometre to use a safe consumption site.
In the last year HIV Community Link has been working with Medicine Hat Police Service, the City of Medicine Hat, Medicine Hat Community Housing Society, Alberta Health Services and other organizations on the project.
To understand the need in Medicine Hat in relation to the opioid crisis a researcher from Medicine Hat College and another from the University of Calgary conducted a survey with 185 people who use substances in Medicine Hat. Data considered included how often people were seeking ambulance services, going to the emergency room at the hospital, and levels of drug related crime.
“We saw that this is an escalating issue in Medicine Hat,” said Hill.
In 2016 there were three deaths related to opioid use and that increased to seven in 2017, said Hill. Related emergency room visits increased from about 40 in 2015 to about 60 in 2016 and about 90 in 2017.
“The coalition made a recommendation that this service be implemented in the community. Subsequent to that we put a proposal in to the Alberta health ministry’s opioid emergency response commission and they have recommended that a supervised consumption service move forward in Medicine Hat,” said Hill.
Ongoing funding to operate the facility would come from Alberta Health, said Hill.
The group is working towards obtaining federal exemption to the drugs and substances act to allow people to consume drugs in the space without prosecution, said Hill.
A safe consumption site does not supply any illicit drugs. The user brings the drugs they have acquired to the site so that if there is an unintended overdose medical staff can administer an antidote.
“The primary goal is to prevent overdose deaths,” said Hill.
