LONDON, Ont. – London may become the next city in Canada to seek funding for a safe-injection site, and politicians are already predicting a storm of protest.
“It will be biblical,” warned Coun. Stephen Orser, who will have a seat at the health board table when the issue is debated early next year.
“Wait until this hits the fan,” added Coun. Bud Polhill.
While common in Europe, Canada has only one supervised drug injection facility in Vancouver.
Toronto’s health board in July became the first in Canada to ask a provincial government to fund a safe injection site, but hasn’t yet received a response.
Vancouver’s site pitted health officials against police, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government against the Supreme Court of Canada.
It was the court that, in 2011, ordered Harper to continue the exemption from Canada’s drug laws for the Vancouver site, called Insite, to allow illicit drug use.
But while that battle was fought far afield, London is quietly wading into the issue as health officials try to figure out how to reduce drug overdoses and the transmission of HIV and hepatitis from the sharing of needles.
The region’s new medical officer of health, Dr. Christopher Mackie, believes safe-injection sites save lives and improve community health.
But while Mackie is passionate, he’s also pragmatic. It’s up to Londoners, as expressed though the board of the Middlesex-London Health Unit, to decide whether to ask the province to fund a safe-injection site, he said.
“It’s up to the board to decide what’s right for the community,” said Mackie, who will also present to his board less contentious options, including drop boxes for used needles.
A spokesperson for Mayor Joe Fontana said it would be “premature” for him to comment on an issue that’s in the health board’s hands, calling that “purely speculative and inappropriate.”
Nationally and in Ontario, many police chiefs oppose the sites, saying they feed organized crime.
But London police chief Brad Duncan says he hasn’t made up his mind yet and will discuss the issue next week with a leader of a group that supports such sites, Brian Lester, executive director of the Regional HIV/AIDS Connection in London.
“I have a very open mind with respect to this,” he said.
Mackie said police arguments against the sites are grounded in assumptions and misinformation.
“There’s no data showing an increase in crime,” Mackie said.
The Harper government was pushing a bill that would make it harder to create a new site, but it was derailed when Parliament prorogued.
Vancouver’s site pitted health officials against police, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government against the Supreme Court of Canada.