Naloxone kit requirement for high-risk businesses a 'Band-aid solution', says bar owner

New requirements for high-risk Ontario workplaces to carry naloxone kits are a "band-aid solution" to address the province's opioid crisis, said a Sudbury, Ont., bar owner.

Kyle Marcus, the owner of the Alibi Room, located in downtown Sudbury, said his business, and most other bars and restaurants in the city's downtown, have had naloxone kits on their premises for quite some time.

Naloxone is a fast-acting drug used to temporarily reverse the effects of opioid overdoses.

My venue is filled with experienced professional bartenders. They're not outreach workers. They're not mental health workers.- Kyle Marcus, owner, the Alibi Room

"I think what made us get it originally was a sense of social responsibility," Marcus said.

"You know, there are issues that plague every corner of every city at this point. And I think to be a good community member is to have these things on board because we really need to deal with the people dying from these things."

WATCH | Naloxone kits willl soon be required in high-risk workplaces:

'They're not outreach workers'

But Marcus said the requirement for businesses like restaurants and construction companies to have naloxone kits on site, and the necessary training to use them, by June, feels like a downloading of responsibilities.

"My venue is filled with experienced professional bartenders. They're not outreach workers. They're not mental health workers," he said.

"And while they have and will, you know, gratefully save someone's life if they need to, that experience is traumatic, especially if you're a 17-year-old host or hostess at the front door."

He said the money spent on the program – employers can apply for free training and naloxone kits for a limited time – would be better spent on improving mental health services and hiring more workers in that field.

The province plans to invest $9 million over a two-year period to supply businesses with the kits and training necessary to comply with the requirements by June 1, 2023.

Dr. Joel Moody, Ontario's chief prevention officer, said businesses where workers are at risk of opioid overdoses while at work will fall under the new legislation. 

The requirements are meant to protect workers, but Moody said customers and members of the public will also benefit.

"The opioid overdose crisis is significantly impacting communities across the province," he said.

"That affects health care, our labour force and our economy. So finding ways to integrate harm reduction into Ontario's high risk workplaces is an important step toward saving lives."

Toxic drug supply

Kaela Pelland is the director of peer engagement with Réseau ACCESS Network, a Sudbury-based organization that provides harm reduction services and operates the city's supervised consumption site.

She said she could understand the frustration from business owners like Marcus.

"Most people don't sign up to be paramedics," Pelland said. 

"It's just the reality of the situation of what our country and what our continent really is experiencing is unprecedented danger for folks who use substances and that the deaths are, you know, they don't discriminate. People are dying of overdoses at every level of economic living, at every level in society."

More than 2,800 Ontarians died from opioid-related causes in 2021 according to data from Public Health Ontario.

That represented a nearly 16 per ent increase in opioid-related deaths compared to the previous year. In 2020, there were 2,461 opioid-related deaths in Ontario; up 55 per cent from 2019. 

Pelland said that while more naloxone kits in the community will save lives, the province needs to address the problem of toxic drug supplies.

Unless they get their drugs tested, people who use street drugs like fentanyl don't know the purity of the drug, or what else it might contain. That uncertainty leads to overdoses.

"Things have been slow moving, or not moving at all, when it comes to talking about safe supply," Pelland said.