Safe consumption sites saving lives

New study shows dramatic drop in overdoses within 500 metres of supervised spaces

- SCOTT MARTIN & DECLAN KEOGH

As opioid overdoses continue to ravage Ontario, Toronto neighbourhoods with supervised consumption sites have seen dramatic decreases in drug fatalities, a new study shows.

The study, published this month in the Lancet, found a 67 per cent reduction in overdose deaths in neighbourhoods within 500 metres of supervised consumption sites after they opened. That reduction in mortality rippled as far as five kilometres from the sites.

It is one of the first papers to study overdose deaths in communities surrounding consumption sites, controversial spaces where people can use drugs under supervision. The results come amid a provincial pause on consumption site approvals, and provide new evidence supporting controlled drug use as an effective tool in the battle against a public health crisis that has affected tens of thousands of Canadians.

“These sites are doing what they’re supposed to be doing, which is preventing deaths,” said Indhu Rammohan, a research assistant at Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute’s Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation and the study’s lead author. “And potentially also doing that in a way that we haven’t really thought of before, which is at the community level or population level.”

Annual opioid overdose deaths in Toronto have skyrocketed in recent years, increasing more than 250 per cent between 2015 and 2022. Across Canada, more than 40,000 people have died from overdoses since 2016 — one of the leading causes of death in the country.