NEWS FILE PHOTO In June 2019, the Associate Minister for Addictions and Mental Health Jason Luan met with various groups in Medicine Hat to listen to feedback regarding the best way to address the needs of people with addictions. A review panel's report on supervised consumption is in, and it looks like Medicine Hat won't be setting up a site. Pictured are Josh Borrows and Katrina Marshall handing over a petition to Luan, who is flanked by local MLAs Drew Barnes and Michaela Glasgo.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade
The findings of the supervised consumption site review panel are described as concerning and suggest Medicine Hat has a methamphetamine issue, rather than an opioid crisis.
“I’m deeply troubled with some of the findings of the report. What we heard was a wake-up call,” said Jason Luan, associate minister of mental health and addictions.
He referred to a system of chaos for people using the sites and the communities where they’re located. He said the next steps will be made on a city-by-city basis.
The review panel’s report calls the introduction of methamphetamine in Medicine Hat a “game changer,” while also stating that no site is needed in this city right now.
Medicine Hat Police Service chief Andy McGrogan says the amount of methamphetamine has doubled in the last year. In 2018 Medicine Hat was dealing with 2,111 grams and in 2019 it jumped to 4,100 grams. In the same time frame heroin and cocaine numbers dropped. Fentanyl powder increased from 87 grams to 103.
“The social disruption to our community has been immense since the proliferation of methamphetamine,” said McGrogan, noting the behavioural change of someone on meth is in stark contrast to those using others drugs.
McGrogan says even during the early community engagement process about a site here the goals appeared to change. Police had concerns about whether the approach would sufficiently focus on getting people help for addiction.
“At what cost do we just give them a place to come and consume,” said McGrogan, suggesting a more formal approach was needed across the province from the beginning.
Starting a site in the Hat was frozen in March 2018, the report says. There was a lack of adequate community consultation and police were not consulted about the location. An existing needle exchange by HIV Community Link is near the proposed site.
The report also states members of the medical community did not support the site.
Geri Bemister-Williams, vice chair of the site review panel, said they found record keeping and reporting varied from site to site. Some reported an overdose that would perhaps have been more appropriately called an adverse effect. It left the public with the wrong impression.
Bemister-Williams said there were no reports of deaths at any of the sites but the number of deaths nearby increased. In general calls to police increased after a site opened.
Physician Bonnie Larson said the report’s authors lacked medical understanding and didn’t seem interested in learning from doctors on the front lines.
“Even stimulation, oxygen itself, these are life-saving interventions,” she said. “It means that without that, the overdose goes in one direction only and that is fatal.”
The report’s authors also flagged a lack of focus on referrals to detox and treatment resources. “Where it was suggested that referrals were made, no evidence was found to support action taken to follow up on such referrals.”
Larson disputes that. She said she herself has taken people from Calgary’s site to other care facilities.
“I can say 100 per cent we do provide wrap-around care.”
Rebecca Saah, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine, said the panel discounted positive feedback and failed to include input from public-health experts.
“I cannot support those recommendations as evidence-based or scientific in any way, shape or form.”
NDP Opposition critic Heather Sweet said the findings reflect the outcome sought by the United Conservative government.
“This minister needs to be open and honest,” she said. “If he shuts these sites down, people are going to go to the streets and they’re going to die.”
Drew Barnes, MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat, says the “vast majority” of his constituents are in support of the government’s decision not to fund a site in Medicine Hat. They want a focus on more mental health, addictions counselling and rehabilitation.
Michaela Glasgo, MLA for Brooks-Medicine Hat, agrees that the vast majority of constituents do not believe a site is in the best interests of the community.
“We need to take a compassionate approach to dealing with the entire continuum of care for those who are addicted,” said Glasgo.
Sandra Azocar, executive director of Friends of Medicare, notes that the panel only looked at the socioeconomic impact and not the human benefit of having this health-care service available to those who need it.
There are currently seven sites in Alberta with proposals for one each in Red Deer, Medicine Hat and another in Calgary.
The panel consulted with approximately 19,000 Albertans, it said. About 1,800 people attended town halls in Edmonton, Red Deer, Calgary, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and Grande Prairie.
HIV Community Link, which had planned the site for Medicine Hat, did not respond to a request for comment.
Full report online:
https://www.alberta.ca/supervised-consumption-services-review.aspx
