Calls for inhalation spaces grow after 2 supervised injection sites close

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."

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.

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.

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."