Friday, March 29, 2024

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Safe injection site in Hamilton

First Published:

In an unanimous show of support, city councillors have voted to bring a safe injection site to Hamilton in an attempt to slow down the rampant deaths due to accidental opioid-related overdoses. It’s a decision that left one mother in tears.

Tammy Burgess’ daughter Brooke died nine months ago after she overdosed on opioids. While she sought rehab treatment in Toronto, what she needed was a safe injection site.

“The people that are just starting out like my daughter that have just been into it for about a year that still have a big shot of a future, well these safe injection sites will help them.”

The site will be integrated into an yet-to-be-decided established harm-reduction centre downtown which would have further services available to help users get sober.

Ward two councillor Jason Farr says that if this vote occurred 15-20 years ago, the outcome would have been different.

“Its time we get moving, we have an educated public, a caring public and what we see here today is thanks to the public health staff and McMaster researchers we have a council that cares too.”

Last year, 43 Hamiltonians died from accidental opioid-related overdoses, four times more than a decade ago. Once the city decides which centre will welcome the safe injection site, the Federal government should go through the quick process of ok’ing it. Hamilton Public Health said that the province would most likely fund the site seeing that it’s done so for other sites in Toronto and Ottawa.

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