Toronto police publicly opposed supervised injection sites
Posted March 14, 2016 7:16 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO (NEWS 1130) – InSite, Vancouver’s supervised injection site, has been operating since 2003 and is widely acknowledged as a way to keep IV drug-users safe.
But now, police in Toronto are standing up against the idea of a similar program in that city.
“We would rather see money being spent in getting people off drugs and getting them away from drugs, and drug treatment rather than these injection sites,” says Toronto Police Association president Mike McCormack.
At a news conference today, Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health is expected to recommend opening five of the supervised injection sites. McCormack says doing so would mean more work for front-line officers.
He points out what Vancouver Police have had to deal with. “They’re (VPD) seeing more of what we’d call street disorder — more people using drugs on the street, smoking drugs, congregating, minor thefts.”
McCormack says the Association would rather see the money spent on combating drug use.
Research has found InSite reduces the number of overdoses and the spread of needle-borne illnesses like HIV. A growing body of research also suggests these sites have other social and health benefits.
Dr. Ahmed Bayoumi, a doctor at a downtown Toronto hospital, says public safety and social benefits include less public litter of needles, and “potentially less crime, because people inject indoors instead of on the street.”
“I think that Toronto would benefit from supervised-injection services, and this is a very good next step in the process of establishing those,” adds Bayoumi.
