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Peterborough’s Consumption And Treatment Services Site Set To Officially Open To Drug Users On June 13

Facility, Staff Aim To Give City’s Drug-Addicted A Safe Place To Consume Narcotics. 

This is the fourth in a series of stories Kawartha 411 has been writing on the opioid crisis in Peterborough and across the Kawarthas

PETERBOROUGH – Peterborough’s long-awaited Consumption and Treatment Services Site (CTS) is now set to be open to the city’s drug-addicted population on June 13. This is according to the facility’s manager Kerri Kightley, who gave Kawartha 411 and other members of the public a first-hand look at the facility on May 31.

 

This is what the safe injection site looks like. It comes complete with two mirrors and a wide tabletop. Officials say it has enough room for two people to use it at the same time.
Photo by John McFadden

Kightley said they have been open for a little while now and have been providing drug-addicted people with resources to help them deal with their addiction and possibly break the vicious cycle of addiction. The critical need for the facility was never more evident than in April when health officials reported at least seven suspected drug-related deaths in the city in that single month alone.

“Using the CTS may be the only connection to health or social services for someone who is using drugs,” Kightley said. “Lives will be saved not only by providing a space where overdoses can be responded to, but also by building compassionate relationships that link individuals to other supports for their wellbeing.”

 

Kerri Kightley, left, manager of Peterborough’s Consumption and Treatment Services Site, stands with Donna Rogers, Fourcast’s executive director in front of the soon-to-be open facility in downtown Peterborough on May 31.
Photo by John McFadden

Drug users will be able to bring their own narcotics to the site and use them under the supervision of caring health professionals. Sterile drug use equipment including clean needles, spoons to prepare the drugs and tie off straps will be provided by the site.  Education on overdose prevention, safer drug use, wound care and connections to community supports will also be provided.

This is the treatment room at the consumption and treatment site. If a person were to have an adverse reaction to the drug they were using but otherwise did not need to go to the hospital, this is where they would be taken to recover.

The Mobile Supports Overdose Response Team (MSORT) shares the building, the old Greyhound bus terminal on Simcoe St. at Hunter, and Fourcast’s addictions staff are well equipped to support individuals seeking treatment.

This area at the Consumption and Treatment Services Site is known as after care. This is where someone who has used drugs inside the facility can sit and relax until they have been monitored and are ready to leave.

Fourcast – the Four Counties Addiction Services Team – announced on May 26 that they have completed the required Health Canada site visit in order to issue an exemption that allows for the use of illegal substances inside the CTS. 

“We are training staff now and are awaiting the green light,” said Donna Rogers, executive director of Fourcast. “Thanks to the efforts of the Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough, along with many local businesses and individual donors, we were able raise $160 thousand to undertake most of the needed renovations ahead of time. This has put the opening of this facility at least six months earlier.”

Fourcast said that research shows about 60 percent of the city’s opioid users smoke and inhale their drug of choice. However, due to the province’s strict anti-smoking laws, smoking inside the facility is not permitted. However, officials point out that in Whitehorse, Yukon, a pilot project is underway to allow drug smokers to use a safe facility.

Officials also said there will be a machine at the Peterborough facility that allows the drug users to test their drugs for toxins before using them.

 

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John McFadden
John McFadden
After graduating from Fanshawe College in London, Ont. with a diploma in broadcast journalism John began his career right here in the Kawarthas at what was then called CKLY in Lindsay. From there John went to CHEX-TV and Wolf Radio in Peterborough as a TV and radio news and sportscaster and morning radio show co-host. John moved on to City-TV and CP24 in Toronto. He covered and reported on many important stories including the SARS outbreak. John then moved to the CBC in Toronto as a senior news writer and sports producer. Wanting a change of scenery John went to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories in 2012 where he earned seven National Community Newspaper Awards covering stories in Canada's Arctic while working for Northern News Services. He returned to Ontario in 2021 and has been writing news stories for Kawartha 411 since late 2021.

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