Toronto to set up safe injection sites to curb drug overdosed deaths

In the last week, between Thursday and Sunday, twenty people were reportedly overdosed with the drug intake while four others died in downtown Toronto.

Apart from the safe injection centres, the city will also have pharmacies with nalaxone, an antidote to neutralise overdoses.

The death has prompted police to issue a public alert.

Though the number of deaths were lesser than the figure recorded by Vancouver in June, people who deal with drug problems do not want to take the matter lightly.

In June, Vancouver registered 25 deaths due to drug overdoses.

Jason Altenberg, program director at Toronto's South Riverdale Community Health Centre was quoted by CTV News: "The number of deaths in the last week or two alone due to any single cause would be considered a public health crisis anywhere."

Altenberg also considered the social geography as a reason for lesser number of deaths in Toronto compared to Vancouver. He cited the lower concentration of poverty in Toronto as a reason behind the number.

"In Toronto, we don't see the same concentration of poverty and drug use in one postal code or neighbourhood" he said.

Speaking about the decision to create injection centres, Altenberg said: "When we first decided that we needed supervised injection services, we didn't have this level of crisis....The three clinics that will host safe injection sites, including South Riverdale, were approved based on data collected in 2012."

Though the actual reason is not yet confirmed, the police opined the death may be linked to heroin laced with fentanyl.

Urging not to intake drugs alone, Health Canada suspected fentanyl might be present in illegal drugs.

"Illegal drugs can be tainted with #fentanyl. Never use alone #StopOverdoses " Health Canada tweeted.

Commenting on the whole development, Toronto Mayor John Tory said: "I continue to be extremely concerned about the number of drug overdoses taking place in Toronto, a number of which have been fatal."

Toronto's Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Eileen de Villa, highlighted a figure of 73% increase in preventable deaths caused due to the drug overdoses.

Following the deaths in last week, Toronto has decided to open the safe injection centres this fall. The move has also been approved by the Health Canada.

(Reporting by Souvik Ghosh)

Images: Creative Commons.