‘There will… be injection sites’: gov’t looking at new ways to support people struggling with addiction
Posted May 28, 2021 12:33 pm.
Last Updated May 28, 2021 5:39 pm.
EDMONTON – The province will be closing down the safe consumption site at the Sheldon Chumir Centre in downtown Calgary as it looks to offer different options for people struggling with addiction.
The site will be replaced with two different options in response to concerns from the community.
RELATED VIDEO: Calgary’s supervised consumption site to close
The new sites will be at two existing partner locations, but no firm details have been released.
“There will continue to be injection sites available but in a much safer and more targetted way,” said Premier Jason Kenney.
“We think that we can address the challenge of addictions, provide necessary support and a full spectrum of services from harm reduction to lifetime recovery, that we can do all those things.”
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Kenney says the existing site was too one-dimensional and there have been social disorder concerns in the area since it opened.
“And I know that the approach of the NDP was to ignore those people who raised those concerns and call them names and say that they were not compassionate.”
We don’t know yet when the Chumir site will close but Kenney says he’s confident the closure can be managed successfully after shutting down the consumption site in Lethbridge.
“There was no measurable negative consequences. So, we’ve taken two years to carefully study this and we’ll be making an announcement in the very near future.”
David Low, the executive director of the Victoria Park Business Improvement Area, said this was disappointing, as he feels the site could have been handled much better.
“We got to learn from this, we got to get smarter about how we help people with addictions in crisis,” Low said. “And, so that’s one thing I’d really like to see more about, how are we going to harvest the lessons learned from here, and get smarter, how do we help people?”
Low agrees there needs to be more help for people struggling with addictions but is frustrated by the process from the province.
In the first two months of the year, 70 people died from overdoses in Calgary.
Last year was the deadliest year for overdoses in Alberta with over 1,100 deaths recorded.
