Guided inhalation is a necessary intervention in the drug poisoning crisis

All safe places to eat government funding for supervised inhalation should receive. This way, the growing number of people who inhale substances will be closer to the help they need in case of drug poisoning. They will also have access to detox, treatment and other health and social resources.

Canada is facing a toxic drug poisoning crisis, exacerbated by concurrent mental health and housing crises. Numbers of fatal drug poisonings have increased dramatically since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2023 alone, More than 8,000 deaths from opioid poisoning have been confirmed in CanadaThe . instability of the street drug supply makes it more difficult to respond to drug intoxication, contributing to higher death rates when people use illicit substances.

Saving lives, reducing costs

Safe consumption sites are a life-saving intervention in this crisis. They provide a safe space for people to use their pre-obtained substances in the presence of staff trained to respond to drug intoxications. They are hubs where people can access health care and housing supportand they help limit the spread of viral infections such as HIV and hepatitis C by providing sterile drug use equipment, safe sex supplies, and educational resources.

Safe consumption places have also been proven reduce the burden on health care systems. According to Health CanadaThere were 41,938 emergency responses to opioid-related overdoses across Canada in 2023, up 18% from 2022.

A cost analysis of the Safeworks safe consumption site in Calgary found it could save the province money approximately $1 million in emergency services cost savings per year.

Inhaling drugs

At all Canadian safe consumption sites, people can inject, snort, and orally consume substances. For years, the inhalation of substances has been promoted by harm reduction advocates to help curb the spread of viruses like HIV and hepatitis C. However, few safe consumption locations offer supervised inhalation services indoors, even though the federal exemption through Health Canada allows it.

There is a significant amount of evidence suggesting People have been inhaling their drugs more than injecting them since before the COVID-19 pandemicthat the The risk of poisoning by inhalation is the same as with injection and that Inhaling substances now contributes to more drug poisonings than injecting.

I am a harm reduction worker in a safe consumption site integrated into a low-threshold, drop-in program for women and gender diverse people experiencing homelessness in HamiltonOnt. Our program recognizes that the The health and social care needs of women and gender-diverse people who use drugs are uniquely influenced by gender, as well as by other aspects of their history and identity..

Gender neutral policy

Traditionally, drug policies and harm reduction services across Canada have been developed in response to the toxic drug poisoning crisis are largely designed, developed and evaluated according to the needs of men.

But women are much more likely to smoke than inject drugs. Unfortunately, most safe consumption sites in Canada are currently unresponsive to their needs.

Although the federal government has a path for safe consumption locations to operateprovincial governments have ultimate control over the terms under which they will finance safe consumption sites. For example, Ontario Consumption and Treatment Services Locations do not receive funding from the provincial government for supervised inhalation.

One safe consumption location in Ontario, Casey House offers indoor, supervised inhalation. But it has not been given a consumption and treatment service designation, and therefore has to finance itself through subsidies and private donations. The safe consumption site where I work is in the same boat.

Major investments

It is expensive to invest in the right air filtration, ventilation and extraction infrastructure necessary to prevent the fumes from the substance from affecting people nearby. In addition, although there a handful of Canadian and international examples that organizations can follow—Investing in safe inhalation requires information about how indoor inhalation intersects or conflicts with workplace health and safety regulations, and provincial smoking laws are not widely available.

Fortunately, financial and political support for supervised inhalation appears to be increasing in some provinces.

British Columbia has launched a two-year pilot project that will allow for indoor inhalation monitoring at select locations where safe consumption is possible. has led to a handful of inhalation programs opening in recent months. Quebec’s first safe inhalation program A branch has also recently opened in Montreal with financial support from the provincial government.

At a time when we are dealing with housing, mental health and toxic drug crises, we need to adapt evidence-based interventions like safe consumption spaces to the needs of the people they support. People who use drugs have been telling us for a long time that they need safe inhalation spaces. It is time we listened and took action.

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