Sudbury's unsanctioned pop-up drug consumption site has shut down until spring

Sudbury's pop-up unsanctioned supervised drug consumption site has shut down — for the time being.

Karla Ghartey is a registered nurse and a founding member of the Sudbury Temporary Overdose Prevention (STOP) Society. STOP believes that drug users shouldn't have to wait for a government-sanctioned supervised space.

In May 2019, a group of volunteers set up the unsanctioned site in a small tent under a canopy in a back lot behind a building on Lloyd Street. The site was open every Monday and stocked with supplies for safe drug consumption, such as water, needles, sanitizer and naloxone.

When winter set in, they bought a trailer with donations from the public.

But they've shut down the trailer, at least for a while.

Ghartey says that because STOP is run by volunteers, the group hasn't been able to open the trailer for the past few weeks.

"So, instead, we're moving towards getting more input from the community on what they want to see in terms of their harm reduction services in the community," said Ghartey.

STOP is holding a series of community meetings to get that input.

The first one takes place today (Mar. 4) from 6 to 8 p.m. at Sudbury Indie Cinema, 162 Mackenzie Street. Light snacks will be provided. 

"We would like community members, whether you use substances or not, whether you live in the community — it's a very inclusive event," said Ghartey. 

She encourages people to come and ask questions about harm reduction. "Ask questions about the services that we provide . . . tell us what they like and what they don't like about the current services and how they want to see them move forward for when we are able to reopen in the springtime," she said.

Ghartey says last summer, once the word started to spread about the pop-up site, they saw from 15 to 25 people every time they opened.

Those numbers started to dwindle with the onset of cold weather.

Public Health Sudbury & Districts intends to have a report completed this spring about what is needed for a supervised injection site.

Ghartey says that while that information will be extremely valuable, it's not going to allow for a supervised consumption site to be up and running within the next year.

"While this information may be coming forward from a research perspective we are still going to be providing on-the-ground-service," said Ghartey. 

"And we want to know in the meantime what does the public or what does the community want us to provide? Can we do that and how can we best meet the needs of the community considering our capacity and our circumstances as a volunteer organization?" she added.

"When you want to offer a service as part of bettering your community, no one knows better what a community needs than those people that are living in that community," said Ghartey.

Ghartey encourages anyone interested in this community dialogue to attend tonight's meeting. STOP is also holding community meetings in April and May.