Proposed safe consumption site in Medicine Hat (photo courtesy Bob Schneider)

By Chantal Wagner

HIV Community Link reacts to government’s safe consumption site report

Mar 6, 2020 | 4:37 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB -The proposed supervised consumption site in Medicine Hat is still up in the air, following the provincial government’s report yesterday.

The report did suggest however, that safe injection sites have shown chaos in communities.

Alberta’s associate health minister says the social impacts include increased needle debris and growing risk to public safety in the neighbourhoods

Executive Director at HIV Community Link in Medicine Hat Leslie Hill says the government wanted to hear the concerns.

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“The government was really clear from the outset that they were seeking to understand that type of impact from the report. And so it makes sense to me that the report is focused on issues around the services. We do also know there’s a robust set of evidence around the services and that they’ve existed for decades in other communities.”

The report does not say whether the government should shut or move any of Alberta’s seven safe injection sites.

She believes supervised consumption sites are critical public health services. “And an important part of a continuum of care that helps people to both stay alive and make the healthiest choices that they can for themselves. But also to connect them to treatment and recovery services.”

And Hill agrees about the government reviewing safe consumption sites on a city-by-city basis.

“I do think each city has different dynamics and different things that need to be taken into consideration and it’s really important to understand the context of each community.”