Doctor defends harm-reduction vending machine for Hamilton hospital as councillor's bid to stop it fails

A Hamilton councillor's attempt to stop a hospital from providing harm-reduction supplies like needles and crack pipes in a vending machine has been quashed. 

The majority of councillors rejected the motion from Coun. John-Paul Danko at a public health meeting Monday after hearing from experts, including Dr. Robin Lennox, a family physician who specializes in substance use care. 

She helped develop the vending machine initiative, called Our Healthbox, for Hamilton General Hospital in part because health-care workers don't have the capacity to supervise distributing "each and every needle and syringe necessary to meet the needs of the community." 

And the need is great, Lennox said. Providing people with safe injection and inhalation supplies (24 hours a day, seven days a week) reduces the risk of HIV, hepatitis C and bacterial infections, and prevents long and expensive hospital stays and premature death. 

"I've heard the concerns from some members of council that providing harm reduction supplies somehow enables drug use," Lennox told councillors.

"I cannot emphasize strongly enough that this is simply not the case." 

Our Healthbox vending machines are set up in 10 places across Canada, including Winnipeg. 

In Hamilton, a vending machine is to be set up at the hospital as part of a pilot run by the city's public health department and Greater Hamilton Health Network (GHHN).

Lennox said she's treated thousands of patients with substance use disorders in clinics, hospitals and shelters across Hamilton, and not one person started using drugs because harm-reduction supplies were available.

"If anything, many of my patients have only learned about harm-reduction supplies too late in their trajectory when they were already exposed to harms," Lennox said. 

Danko's motion would have requested that the Ministry of Health not provide funding for harm-reduction supplies in the Healthboxes and declare the public health committee does not support the "unsupervised distribution of paraphernalia for illegal drug use."

"This is an opportunity for us to say, 'No, a vending machine that distributes crack pipes, meth bowls and needles is not acceptable to the residents of the City of Hamilton,'" Danko said. 

The committee does not have the power to stop the program from rolling out, public health staff said. 

The Ministry of Health does not fund the Healthboxes and "does not support providing the means to use illicit drugs," said spokesperson Hannah Jensen in a statement.