Chapter Four: Safe Injection Sites and Harm Reduction Efforts in Toronto
Supervised Consumption Services
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Safe injection sites or Supervised Consumption Services (SCSs) as the city of Toronto refers to them are places where drug users can consume drugs while under the supervision of harm reduction workers and health professionals.
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SCSs are designed to save lives by preventing overdoses and connecting drug users to paths forward in treatment.
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They provide a safe location where users can connect with social services such as mental health services.
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Both Canadian and international evidence shows that SCSs are effective at preventing overdose deaths as well as lessening the spread of infectious diseases.
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Toronto opened its first SCSs in 2017 and there are currently 10 in operation.
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These sites are regularly inspected according to Ontario health standards.
("Supervised Consumption", 2024)
The above map shows the locations of the first 4 SCSs opened in Toronto (Burman, 2018)
The following video is an example of the people of Toronto taking action into their own hands
-To prevent overdoses while safe injection sites were in the process of being opened in Toronto an illegal pop up safe injection site was opened.
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-Police were aware of the safe
injection site’s existence but used their discretion and allowed it to operate given the life-saving nature of the work done by volunteers and the upcoming opening of official sites.
Harm Reduction Outside the Law
This video highlights the importance of everyday people coming together to be the change they want to see in the community. It also reveals how it is typically the people at the root of the problem responsible for beginning this transformative change. Drug users are no different; it is recovered addicts, their friends, and peers who acted as volunteers at this site. These local and meaningful actions can be considered by sociologists as acts of abolition. The most important thing people can do to fight for real transformative change is to organize collective action at the local level.
Sociological Term Breakdown : Abolition
Abolition may seem like a familiar term, as it is typically associated with prison abolition - meaning to end or stop something in its entirety, usually all at once. But for sociologists, abolition takes a similar but unique approach. It refers to small meaningful actions that work to unlearn cultural and systemic biases taught to us by our social institutions that value power over people (Marvelous Grounds, 2021). Abolition in this case refers to the actions the community members took to ensure the safety and protection of active users, despite the illegality of their actions.
The idea is that these small actions, taken by those most affected will eventually form together to create a powerful abolitionist movement. This movement was successful, as six years later, Toronto now has ten legally supported safe injection sites.