渥太华要新开毒品吸入点 允许公开吸毒 拯救生命

渥太华要新开毒品吸入点！宣称允许室外公开吸毒是“拯救生命”？

2024年3月18日 来源: Natasha

【OTTAWAZINE资讯】前段时间，温哥华要在华人聚集区开毒品注射站的事情闹得沸沸扬扬（点击查看相关报道），但其实早在 2017 年，渥太华就已经在紧邻渥大的 Sandy Hill 社区开设了一个毒品注射点。

开设毒品注射点的初衷旨在为瘾君子们提供一个所谓的“合法空间”，让他们在安全、受监管的环境下注射毒品，同时这里还提供紧急治疗服务，以防止用药过量所造成的危害或死亡。

然而，就在上周五，渥太华位于 Sandy Hill 和 Somerset West 的两个毒品注射点突然发生了意外，加热毒品而散发出有害烟雾导致工作人员出现了“恶心、头晕和头痛”的症状。目前，这两个注射点都停止了服务，等待安省的进一步调查。

注射点内部 图片来源：Submitted by Rob Boyd

毒品主要分为注射和吸入两种吸食方式，据 Sandy Hill 健康中心主任 Wendy Stewart 表示，当时客户正在使用某些设施加热并准备吸入药物，但这是不允许的，因为毒品注射点只提供注射服务。

但渥太华公共卫生部门去年的一份报告发现，因吸入阿片类药物过量而导致的意外死亡率从四年前的 16% 增加了一倍多，到 2022 年已经飙升至 39%。仅 2023 年前六个月，渥太华就有 93 人因阿片类药物过量服用而死亡。

这说明用吸入的方式摄取毒品的人越来越多，因此 Stewart 认为，人们现在更需要能够安全吸入毒品的空间，否则，他们就会在不受监管的情况下吸食，增加药物过量的风险。

Sandy Hill 注射点 图片来源：Guy Quenneville/CBC

“现在，25% 的药物过量发生在我们的监管场所之外，其中大多数都与吸入式毒品有关。”

Somerset West 社区健康中心的执行董事 Suzanne Obiorah 在一封电子邮件中表示，该中心已向加拿大卫生部申请许可，允许客户在工作人员的监督下在其室外庭院吸食、吞咽和注射毒品。 

“随着我们越来越多地了解社区吸毒情况，我们也意识到人们需要更安全的吸入服务的重要性。”

Somerset West 社区健康中心 图片来源：Sam Konnert/CBC

渥太华过量预防组织（OPO）的成员 Leah Podobnik 表示，拥有更安全的吸入场所将有助于集中资源并阻止人们私下过量服用药物。

“我们需要建立一个空间，让人们可以安全地吸入，这样就不会出现随处可见的吸毒过量情况。”

Podobnik 补充说，这也将有助于防止注射点的工作人员分心，“跑到外面去处理那些因为药物过量而倒在雪堆里的人”。 

2017 年，OPO 曾运营过自己的受监管注射点，其中就包括一个允许吸入毒品的帐篷，但在 Sandy Hill 注射点开放后，迫于政府压力而不得不关闭了。

图片来源：Overdose Prevention Ottawa

Podobnik 说，OPO 注射点“由看到其重要性的活动人士运营”，并补充说，监管吸入式毒品历来被排除在该省应对药物过量危机的措施之外。

他的观点得到了 Stewart 的支持。2022 年，多伦多的 Casey House 成为安大略省第一家提供室内监督吸入的医院——Stewart 认为渥太华必须提供同样的服务。

“毒品政策和立法往往落后于当前的需求，”她说，“这是拯救生命和实际采取适当干预措施的下一步。”

Calls for inhalation spaces grow after 2 supervised injection sites close

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-supervised-consumption-injection-inhalation-site-close-1.7132166?

People prepare inhalable drugs inside and smoke outside, says director

Sam Konnert · CBC News ·Mar 05, 2024

 

The Somerset West Community Health Centre is one of two locations that have halted their supervised injection services after staff reported feeling unwell. Both centres have said harmful fumes from drugs being heated up were factors in the closure. (Sam Konnert/CBC)

The temporary closure of two supervised injection sites in Ottawa highlights the need for space where people can more safely inhale illicit drugs, the director of one of the sites says.

On Friday, both the Sandy Hill and Somerset West community health centres halted service at their supervised sites until further notice pending investigation by the province.

Staff at both sites said harmful fumes had been emitted when drugs were heated for inhalation.

All other harm reduction services at both sites remain open. 

• 2 harm reduction hubs halt their supervised injection services

The director of the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre's program which includes supervised injection said clients are using the facility to prepare drugs for inhalation, which is not allowed. Users then go outside to inhale them.

"Our overdoses used to occur just inside our safe injection site," said Wendy Stewart.

"Now, 25 per cent of our overdoses are occurring outside our [site] and most of them, if not all, are related to inhalation."

The supervised injection site inside the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre also paused operations last week pending an investigation by Ontario's Ministry of Health. (Guy Quenneville/CBC)

Having supervised inhalation sites in Ottawa would both protect workers and save lives, she said.

An Ottawa Public Health report last year found the rate of accidental opioid overdose deaths caused by inhalation more than doubled to 39 per cent in 2022 from 16 per cent four years earlier.

Its data shows 93 people died from a confirmed opioid overdose in the first six months of 2023, the most recent data available.

• Inhaling drugs surpasses injections in Ottawa, and experts want new tools to fight it

The Somerset West centre's executive director Suzanne Obiorah said in an email it has applied to Health Canada for permission to allow clients to snort, swallow and inject drugs under staff supervision in its outdoor courtyard. 

The exemption would not allow inhalation, but "as we learn more and more about drug usage in the community, we are also learning about the need for safer inhalation services," Obiorah said. 

Workers splitting efforts to keep users safe

A member of the grassroots group Overdose Prevention Ottawa (OPO) said having safer inhalation sites would help concentrate resources and stop people from overdosing in private.

CBC spoke with Leah Podobnik last month when the Sandy Hill centre began detecting an animal tranquilizer in drug samples.

"We need to set up spaces where people can go and inhale their substances so we don't have three people overdosing outside and two people overdosing inside," she said.

That would also help prevent harm reduction workers splitting their efforts and "running outside and dealing with people overdosing in snowbanks," Podobnik added. 

OPO operated its own supervised injection site, which included an inhalation tent, in a Lowertown park for several months in 2017. It closed following pressure from local political leaders and the opening of the Sandy Hill site.

Overdose Prevention Ottawa operated its own supervised injection site in a Lowertown park for several months in 2017. The site included an inhalation tent. (Overdose Prevention Ottawa)

The OPO site was "run by activists who saw the importance of it," Podobnik said, adding that inhalation sites have traditionally been excluded from the province's response to the overdose crisis.

In 2022, Toronto's Casey House became the first in Ontario to offer indoor supervised inhalation.

Stewart thinks it's essential Ottawa be able to offer the same.

"Often drug policy and legislation tends to lag behind the current need," she said. "This is the next step in terms of saving lives and actually having appropriate interventions in place."

Sam Konnert Reporter is a reporter with CBC News in Ottawa. He can be reached at [e-mail] or @SamKonnert.