Overdose prevention site awaits final approval in Moncton

An organization that provides harm-reduction services to drug users in Moncton is optimistic a new overdose prevention site will be open before the end of the month.

"It's looking very hopeful," said Debby Warren, executive director of ENSEMBLE Services Greater Moncton.

"Our room is so ready," 

"Our challenge right now is waiting for approval for insurance."

The site is located in the group's existing facilities, said Warren, on Weldon Street.

The plan is for intravenous drug users to be able to go there to test and inject their substances Monday afternoons and Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m..

Those are the hours possible for now with the funding they have from the health department, she said, but ideally a space would be available 24/7.

People who use drugs at the site will be asked to stay for at least 15 minutes afterwards to see if they have an adverse or overdose reaction, Warren said. 

If needed, Ensemble staff will be able to administer naloxone, a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose, and to call 9-1-1.

Naloxone doesn't always work. 

According to the most recent opioid surveillance report from New Brunswick Public Health, naloxone was administered to 137 suspected opioid overdose patients in the first two quarters of 2021. Seventy-four — or 54 per cent — of them responded to it.

But overdose prevention sites save lives, said Warren.

At Vancouver's Insite facility, for example, which opened in 2003, not one person has died after more than 3.6 million visits and 6,440 overdose interventions, according to Vancouver Coastal Health.

In New Brunswick, 80 people died of drug overdoses last year, according to New Brunswick Public Health.

More than half of those deaths — 55 per cent — were related to opioids. 

Four involved fentanyl or fentanyl analogues. 

Thirty-seven of the opioid overdoses were deemed accidental or are still under investigation.

At least another nine people died in the first quarter of 2021, said the report, but data for that quarter remained incomplete, and the number was expected to increase once coroner investigations were completed.

The running total of known substance-related deaths since January 2016 is now 333.

Ensemble staff have received a lot of training in the last couple of months to prepare for the overdose prevention site opening, Warren said. 

That training has covered CPR and first aid, how to use an automated defibrillator, how to recognize suicide warning signs and how to de-escalate potentially volatile situations.

New equipment is coming in, she said, that will be used to test substances, and training will also be given in its use.

"Often what's happened with overdoses, what they think they're buying is not necessarily what they're getting."

A machine will be able to test a very small sample of what a person has brought in to use for fentanyl and the benzodiazepine group of drugs, said Warren.

The machine is being retooled to also test for Shady 8, she said, a "really dangerous" synthetic opioid supply that's now in circulation.

Beyond the direct benefits to the people who would use the site, Warren said it should also alleviate some community issues.

For example, people who are homeless won't have to use in public and there should be fewer needles left lying around.

"I know that's a concern," said Warren. "I hear it every day."

She urged compassion.

"They're Monctonians and they deserve to be treated with respect that other people get when they have complex health issues."

The health minister previously said she hoped an overdose prevention site would be set up before the end of the year, noted Warren.

The Moncton site could be a template for others, she said.

"We also know that the other areas that we work with — in Fredericton, Saint John, Miramichi, Bathurst — there's all a need."