Small crowd seeks education on Sudbury's unsanctioned drug consumption site

It was a small turnout for a meeting held by the volunteers who run the unsanctioned drug consumption site in Sudbury, but the participants were receptive to the group's message of harm reduction.

The Sudbury Temporary Overdose Prevention (STOP) Society believe that offering a monitored site for drug use will reduce the harms associated with it, and help drug users make connections with people and agencies who can help them.

Rather than waiting for government approval to set up such a site, some volunteers in Sudbury have been offering an unauthorized supervised site with clean supplies for drug use since last May.

First they set up under tents and more recently, in the winter weather, have been using a trailer.

However, a few weeks ago, founding member Karla Ghartey says they decided to shut down since fewer people were using it, volunteers were dwindling and the logistics of moving their trailer became too challenging.

Ghartey says they wanted to use the down-time to get community input on where they should go and how they should deliver the service when they resume service in the spring.

She says they had had hoped the location of the meeting, at the Sudbury Indie Cinema, in the downtown would make drug users feel comfortable enough to participate.

Another volunteer, Carla O'Campeau, says she spread the message among them, but she's not surprised they didn't show up.

"Because they're scared of stigma, judgement, shame, the time they walk in here and they look different from these professionals," she says.

The volunteers also noted the lack of municipal politicians at the meeting.

Ghartey says she did mention the meeting to at least one.

"From what I'm hearing, I think that there are people on council who support it, but not to the extent that they will stick their necks out," she says.

 Much of the discussion centred around educating those who came out rather than gathering advice on future operations.

Erin Ethelston is a nurse practitioner who wanted to know more about services to which she could refer her patients.

She also heard from the group that they would love to have health professionals volunteer at the site, but Ethelston says she'd have to look into that a little more, as she had concerns about how that would affect her licence.

"Being an unsanctioned site, there's fear about repercussions there's the fear of the unknown in terms of how these things operate."

Another person who attended says the meeting gave her a new perspective.

Mette Kruger is the interim CEO of the Greater Sudbury Public Library.

She says there have been challenges lately with aggressive patrons and behaviours and suspicions of drug use in the library, but hearing from the group that a lot of people find sanctuary at the library helped put that in perspective. 

"When you hear someone say they love the library because it's such a safe space that was extremely important for me to hear and we need to think more about how the library does act as a safe space for many people in the community." 

On a personal note, Kruger says she was impressed by the passionate, committed people in the community who recognize the humanity in everybody.