‘I wouldn’t be here’: Ontario supervised consumption site users speak out on closures
Global News
The 35-year-old weeps as he speaks about the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre, which houses the supervised consumption site he uses. It is one of 10 such sites to close.
Reggie Garrett remembers snippets of the first time he was saved from a fatal overdose.
A few years ago, while at a supervised consumption site in downtown Toronto, he overdosed on fentanyl, with the powerful opioid working to shut down his body.
A staffer rushed to give him an opioid antidote and stood over him while it took effect.
“I saw his face and how worried he was, it was the first time in a long time that I felt like somebody cared about me,” Garrett says.
“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them.”
The 35-year-old weeps as he speaks about the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre, which houses the supervised consumption site he uses. It is one of 10 such sites slated for closure after the province announced new rules.
Health Minister Sylvia Jones recently outlined a fundamental shift in the province’s approach to the overdose crisis. Ontario will shutter the 10 sites because they’re too close to schools and daycares, and the government will prohibit any new ones from opening as it moves to an abstinence-based treatment model.
Seven existing consumption sites will remain open.
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