The controversial supervised consumption site (SCS) has its naysayers in the city, but at least two community members with lived experience are speaking up in hopes the “life-saving” facility goes through in Barrie.
At their May 31 meeting, city councillors endorsed 11 Innisfil St., as the proposed location for an SCS near downtown Barrie.
An SCS would provide a safe space and sterile equipment for individuals to use pre-obtained drugs under the supervision of health-care staff, where consumption means taking opioids and other drugs by injection, smoking, snorting or orally.
The Canadian Mental Health Association’s Simcoe County branch is the lead applicant, with the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit as co-applicant. They are working together on a consumption and treatment services application to Ontario’s Health Ministry, and a Controlled Drugs and Substances Act exemption from Health Canada that allows staff with the SCS to have the ability to test and handle drugs without any criminal sanctions.
More than 20 people made deputations on the matter, speaking both for and against the Innisfil Street location, which council approved by an 8-2 margin.
Local health officials have reported there were 133 confirmed and probable opioid-related deaths in Simcoe-Muskoka in 2020, with 47 confirmed and probable deaths in Barrie from January-September 2020, or two times the 2019 rate for that period.
BarrieToday interviewed a 45-year-old man named Jamie, who said he could speak to the city's worsening drug problem as someone with lived experience.
“I’ve been an addict for 34 years," said Jamie, whose last name is not being used to protect his privacy. "I’m finally going for treatment and I’ve never been for treatment. I’m scared to go, but I want to live so I’m going to.”
When asked why he was scared to go for treatment, Jamie paused before saying, “I’m scared because I don’t know anything else but being an addict.”
Jamie said he was 12 years old when he started using heroin following the trauma of being sexually abused, beaten and forgotten in the foster home system. He said he had “no choice but to use drugs in order to forget.”
“The fentanyl right now is so addictive that you do it twice and you’re hooked. It's so potent, a bit the size of a little grain of salt can kill you,” he said. “I’ve died at least 30 times. Flat-lined. I’ve lost way too many friends in this city alone to overdoses and murders over drugs.”
City council's decision on May 31 came after over two years of debates and research that eventually led to the municipal endorsement to have the CMHA and the local health unit pursue the SCS application.
Some of the arguments from those opposed included the area becoming undesirable to live in, with one deputant saying they “cannot afford the financial and emotional cost of being forced to leave (their) home.”
Despite one speaker saying “this (SCS) should be where it would do the most good, and that’s the downtown core,” the site is located near Milligan's Pond, where many homeless people live in tents.
According to Jamie, many people living in the park are using drugs to suppress trauma.
“The (proposed) location is in the right area because I’ve lived in Milligan's and I know a lot of people there are using and overdosing. They’re dying, dying on the spot,” he said. “People who don’t like the way things will look probably don’t like it now, so why not change it and save lives, too?”
Jamie says he likely won’t receive rehab help for another month due to the backlogs, but wishes there was an SCS in the city now, because the drug problem isn't going away.
“I’ll be honest — I used two days ago. I feel OK today, but I just want this to stop. I see my future of being able to help others who are like me now, but I can’t get there,” he said. “I want to get there so badly, but unless you’ve been gripped by the drugs, you won’t get it and you can’t.
“Everybody has addictions — coffee, alcohol, gambling, cigarettes — but if you’re addicted to drugs, you’re looked down on,” added Jamie. “I know that. I see that everyday.”
Jamie “desperately” wants to get off drugs, but it isn't that easy with proper help.
“People think you go to the SCS, get high and leave. That's not it at all,” he said. “You take the drugs that ease your horrible mental and physical pain, but rather than curl up on the ground with needles beside you, you are safe with someone who makes sure you don’t die. Then, you get the help and counselling you need to hopefully guide you off the drugs.
"I could sit here all day telling people who are against it what it can do, but they won’t get it.”
Jamie has lost close friends and family members to drugs. These circumstances have made him long even more to get clean.
“I lost my nephew to an overdose. I lost my daughter because she was at someone’s house after a party — she had a hangover (and) was told to drink the juice in the fridge and accidentally drank 120 millilitres of methadone,” he said. “She never did drugs. She didn’t deserve that, no one does, but she certainly didn’t.”
Jamie has heard all the debates from council and those who are opposed to an SCS. The issue is also often talked about by people in the grips of addiction.
“I hear it all. I hear them talking all the time and a lot of people on the street are talking about it, too,” he said. “I would say to them to please believe me, from someone who is currently using, it is going to save a lot of lives. It's also going to help the community, too, by getting a lot of needles out of parks and off the streets.”
Jamie said it will also help get some people out of jail, because, as he told BarrieToday, a lot of users go to jail for an escape.
“Imagine getting people off the streets and out of jail — that’s a bonus to saving lives. A lot of us users are in jail because it's a safe place for us. It's a lot safer than the options,” he said. "But a lot of the time I was on the street, winter or whenever.”
As part of the local SCS application, the CMHA and health unit would work with the city to address fencing, landscaping, access, security cameras, discarded needle collection boxes, appropriate property standards and property maintenance measures at the site.
An SCS advisory committee would also be established, as would a security plan and/or a needle sweep plan, along with any related neighbourhood integration matters.
The CMHA and local health unit would provide annual reports to council and city staff would report back on the progress of the above matters.
Jamie hopes to see one soon and plans on being off drugs to assist anyone needing it.
“There is no SCS here, so I’m waiting for now to go get help. But I’m going to beat this. I have to because I don’t want to die,” he said. “I don’t want anymore people to die. This is a pandemic worse than COVID if you ask me.”
