Supervised drug consumption site users say they are afraid of what’s to come when 10 such sites close next year.
Reggie Garrett remembers when he was first saved at the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre in downtown Toronto.
He says he came to with a staff member standing over him after giving Garrett an opioid antidote.
Garrett says that made him feel like someone cared about him, the first time in a long time he felt love.
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.
READ MORE: Ontario to ban supervised consumption sites near schools, Hamilton facility to close
The province has said it will be creating 19 new “homelessness and addiction recovery treatment hubs,” plus 375 highly supportive housing units at a cost of 378-million dollars as it enforces its new rules.
Jeanne Hamilton says she too was saved from an overdose and has since become trained as a harm-reduction worker.
Garrett, Hamilton and several others say they feel unheard and that their lives are not worth as much as others.
