Toronto opens injection centres to combat drug overdosed deaths

Since last week of July, several deaths had occurred in the city due to drug overdose.

However, the temporary safe-injection sites which have been set up will be replaced by the permanent ones this fall.

The temporary injection centres will be open between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. from Monday to Saturday.

At a time three people can take the drug in the centres which have been set up near Victoria and Dundas Sts..

In the permanent centres, however, five people at a time can take the injection and also between 10 a.m. to 10 p.m..

Nine people are expected to use the injections per hour and will be under observation for fifteen minutes to detect any overdoses, report said.

The other centres will be built up at Queen West Central Toronto Community Health Centre on Bathurst St. and South Riverdale Community Health Centre near Carlaw Ave.

Toronto’s chief public health official, Dr. Eileen de Villa, was quoted by the Star as saying: "It provides a safe environment for people who are going to use drugs."

"We know both through research and lived experience it’s highest risk for overdose and deaths when people... use alone. We provide a safe environment, a supervised environment for people to use their drugs safely, so they minimize harm to themselves," she added.

Several drug overdosed deaths had occurred in recent times which prompted Toronto to take the decision of setting up three safe injectioncentres with an aim to curb the loss of lives.

In the last week of July, twenty people were reportedly overdosed with the drug intake while four others died in downtown Toronto.

Three more people lost their lives in the Durham region on August 12.

(Reporting by Suman Das)