Volunteers and staff members from the Somerset West Community Health Centre have studied various safe injection sites in Europe, hoping to create dialogue about a similar initiative in Ottawa.
The $9,000 trip, paid for by the centre’s reserve fund for special projects, was not funded with taxpayer dollars or funding from the city, says SWCHC executive director Jack McCarthy. The team of three visited Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, and Frankfurt.
“The basis of the trip was the question, ‘How can we be more informed about safe injection sites?’ says McCarthy.
He explains that the major lesson from Europe was that “injection sites improve the community. It takes drug use out of the streets and into a monitored medical facility.”
McCarthy adds that feedback from the Centretown community has been mostly positive. “People seem curious to know what we learned about how to successfully introduce and maintain a site,” he says.
“Many of the drug users on the streets also have mental health issues, so we need to try to provide the right kind of intervention for them,” says McCarthy.
Previous statements from Mayor Jim Watson and Police Chief Charles Bordeleau echo that safe injection sites aren’t welcome in Ottawa, but McCarthy feels discussion and debate is needed.
“Although our research is still in the early stages, we need dialogue in Ottawa about this,” he says. “We learned that overdose deaths [in Europe] dropped significantly, and safe injection sites are a good way to manage drug use in the city.”