A public face for serious drug abuse may be needed if calls for the creation of an Ottawa safe-injection site are to translate into popular and political support, a University of Ottawa public health researcher says.
Dr. Mark Tyndall told a discussion forum Thursday night that the tragic story of someone hit hard by intravenous drug use could spark an open discussion about the need for monitored drug-use facilities, just as the suicide of Kanata South Coun. Allan Hubley’s gay son has led to talk about anti-gay bullying.
“One testimonial from a bereaved mother is at least as good as a New England Journal (of Medicine study) in terms of public opinion,” said Tyndall, head of infectious disease research at the U of O’s medical school.
He said an association of drug users in the city modeled on the Vancouver Area Network of Drugs Users may be one way to publicize what he called an urgent need for a supervised place for Ottawa addicts to consume drugs.
The Vancouver group formed in 1998 to lobby politicians and mobilize public support for harm reduction measures, such as the city’s InSite injection room, to minimize the damage caused by illicit drug use.
Tyndall, who has co-authored peer-reviewed research on InSite, said there’s no need for more studies about whether an injection site saves lives, adding that it would reduce social and health costs stemming from drug addiction.
At this point additional evidence on InSite “really doesn’t matter,” he said. “It works.”
Mayor Jim Watson and police chief Vern White both oppose creating a place for drugs to be used under the watchful eye of nurses and health officials.
A landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision on the Vancouver safe injection site in September said Ottawa must give such facilities a legal exemption to operate if certain conditions are met, including support from the local community.
The discussion panel at the Dalhousie Community Association put on by the Campaign for a Safe Consumption Site, a new Ottawa group calling on the city to launch a safe drug-use space. About 70 people attended the talk.
A 2008 University of Ottawa study of 250 intravenous drug users found that more than eight in 10 lived in the downtown core. Roughly two-thirds of those surveyed said they had injected in public in the six months prior to the survey.