Cities around the world are fighting the same losing battle against the opioid epidemic. In that sense, our community is no different than anywhere else.
But there is one thing that sets the Sault apart: unlike many cities, we still don’t have a supervised consumption site — a safe, clean place for addicts to use street drugs under the watchful eye of trained staff.
Despite the stigma that still exists, there is no question that supervised consumption sites save lives. Research has shown they lower the risk of accidental overdoses, reduce the spread of infectious diseases, and provide a starting point for users looking for treatment and withdrawal services.
In a city that lays claim to one of the deadliest overdose rates in the province — third-highest, behind only Thunder Bay and Sudbury — a supervised consumption site is long overdue.
As SooToday reported over the weekend, the city is doing plenty of homework in its pursuit of this facility, including gathering feedback and advice from other northern communities that have already gone down this road. CAO Malcolm White pointed out that the process is a complex one that involves various permits from the federal and provincial governments — and many questions over who will pay for what.
Not to mention the other big question: Where is the best place in town to put this facility?
We asked Mayor Matthew Shoemaker that question when he stopped by our SooToday studio last week for an in-depth conversation about his first six months in office. As it was during the mayoral campaign, his answer was clear: the supervised consumption site should be somewhere downtown — but not on the main drag.
“I don’t want to see it on Queen Street because I think there is value to having Queen Street as our main commercial business area,” Shoemaker said. “But the downtown is an area that has the most need for these types of services — it’s where people are most afflicted with addictions issues, and so it needs to be in the general vicinity of downtown. My preference would just be that it not be directly on Queen Street.”
As the mayor pointed out, he won't make the final call; community members will have an opportunity to voice their opinions on the location before a site is ultimately approved. But Shoemaker also made sure to emphasize that the benefits of this planned facility are clear — and that when it comes to a supervised consumption site in Sault Ste. Marie, it is a matter of when, not if.
“I've often said there is no one solution to this problem,” Shoemaker said. “But having the right mix of services will help the problem and will improve our statistics.”
You can watch SooToday's full interview with the mayor HERE.
You can also watch these previously published snippets of the mayor talking about the old hospital site, how to improve safety in the downtown core, and what to do about a local landlord who owes the city $381,000 in unpaid fines for a long list of fire and building code violations.