For years, Michael Baker has been a shopper at Path 525, the one secure drug consumption website in Thunder Bay, Ont., and says employees there have saved his life over a dozen occasions.
Baker can be a volunteer on the website and says he, in flip, has helped saved the lives of a dozen individuals who’ve overdosed by utilizing naloxone kits supplied by Path 525.
Information this week that Path 525 — together with 9 different secure consumption websites within the province — will shut subsequent yr has left him devastated.
“It isn’t only a place [for] secure injection. It isn’t only a place to come back get excessive. It is the hub, I suppose, of Thunder Bay’s hurt discount community,” stated Baker, who has been with out a everlasting residence for a number of years and lives in a tent.
“It is a spot to get referrals to different applications.”
Path 525, which is run by NorWest Group Well being Centres (NWCHC), opened in 2018. Final summer season, Ontario launched a “vital incident assessment” of all secure consumption websites following a deadly capturing of a lady close to one in Toronto.
Juanita Lawson, chief government officer of NorWest, stated the province by no means shared the outcomes of Path 525’s assessment along with her group.
“We did full, as a corporation, a complete group security audit final fall, and have been implementing a few of these modifications that had been required and requested or really useful,” Lawson stated.
WATCH | Ontario’s closure of 10 drug consumption websites defies knowledgeable recommendation:
Ontario’s closure of 10 drug consumption websites defies knowledgeable recommendation
Ontario’s determination to close down 10 supervised drug consumption websites is sparking backlash after paperwork revealed the closures go in opposition to the recommendation of the province’s personal consultants.
Well being Minister Sylvia Jones introduced Tuesday that the province is banning SCS inside 200 metres of faculties and child-care centres, forcing 5 in Toronto and 5 in different particular person cities to shut by March 31, 2025. Path 525 is situated across the nook from Ogden Group Public College.
The information has been met with a lot criticism, as paperwork present the closures go in opposition to the recommendation of the province’s personal consultants.
Lawson stated she’s disenchanted the providers her group has been providing for years — and the purchasers who depend on them — “are actually being stigmatized.”
“We all know there’s important stress on the group, however we additionally know that the consumption and remedy service just isn’t the reason for the ills which can be going down,” she stated.
Lots of of overdoses reversed
Employees reversed 365 overdoses at Path 525 between 2021 and the primary half of 2024, stated Lawson.
Final month, there have been 1,266 visits by folks accessing meals, showers, housing help and provides. A complete of 318 folks went there for secure drug consumption and 135 folks had been supplied major well being care, she stated.
“There is a faculty throughout the road, which is unlucky, however the medicine [were] executed right here earlier than the power opened,” famous Baker.
A banner draped over Path 525 in Thunder Bay acknowledges the 44,592 obvious opioid toxicity deaths reported between January 2016 and December 2023 throughout Canada. (Submitted by Brittany D’Angelo)
Ontario Chronicle reached out to the well being minister’s workplace for touch upon whether or not it consulted with the NWCHC in regards to the closure of Path 525 or its assessment. Alexandra Adamo, government director of communications for Jones, didn’t straight reply these questions.
“The crime knowledge speaks for itself. In Thunder Bay, the neighbourhood with the CTS (consumption and remedy providers) website slated for closure [has] a marked improve in crime when in comparison with the remainder of the town,” Adamo stated in an e-mail on Thursday.
Adamo didn’t say the place the Well being Ministry received its crime knowledge from and didn’t reply as to whether Path 525 may stay open if it was moved additional away from Ogden Group Public College.
Ontario Chronicle requested the Thunder Bay Police Service (TBPS) for a breakdown of legal exercise in neighbourhoods.
Spokesperson Matt Vis instructed Ontario Chronicle the service was reviewing the obtainable knowledge, however “there are numerous components that contribute to the prevalence of reported legal exercise and police requires service in any specific space.”
HART hub software on its method
Group advocates are calling for the province to reverse its determination or enable Path 525 to relocate.
For its half, Ontario says it is spending $378 million on 19 new Homelessness and Habit Restoration Remedy (HART) hubs and is encouraging SCS operators to transition to this mannequin.
The hubs will not enable supervised drug consumption, safer provide or needle alternate applications — all of that are supplied at Path 525. NWCHC is anticipating an software subsequent week to use to turn out to be a hub, Lawson stated.
Juanita Lawson, CEO of NorWest Group Well being Centres, says she’s disenchanted by the upcoming closure of Path 525, however is raring to study extra in regards to the software to transition the service into one of many Homelessness and Habit Restoration Remedy (HART) hubs. (Marc Doucette/CBC)
“We’re trying ahead to working with our companions round what ought to this mannequin seem like and listening to from our employees who’re effectively versed … about what’s vital to include,” she stated.
The Metropolis of Thunder Bay issued an announcement late Tuesday saying it was disenchanted with information of Path 525’s closure, however expects the group shall be “thought of a vital HART hub location.”
Rat poison, animal tranquillizers in road provide
When Baker first got here to Path 525, he introduced in medicine to make use of within the presence of health-care professionals in case he overdosed. Shoppers have the choice to get their medicine examined earlier than they use them, however it’s not obligatory.
After experiencing so many overdoses, Baker ultimately began utilizing the safer provide program, and now receives a prescription for hydromorphone as an alternative choice to the road provide. He hasn’t overdosed since being on this system.
“It is the very same each time,” he stated. “The factor about fentanyl or the road medicine that you simply purchase, you might purchase the exact same block of drug and one batch — one piece may have one power and the subsequent piece might be 10 occasions stronger.”
Whereas HART hubs will not enable drug consumption, it’s unclear whether or not they’ll allow drug testing, Lawson stated.
WATCH | How Thunder Bay’s drug testing machine works: 
How Thunder Bay’s drug testing machine works
Path 525 in Thunder Bay, Ont., is the one secure consumption website in northwestern Ontario. The CBC’s Sarah Regulation went to see how the positioning’s drug testing machine works, as co-ordinator Nicole Fieduna demonstrates a bulk scan utilizing a bag of sugar.
NWCHC issued two drug alerts this week: turquoise fentanyl containing rat poison despatched a number of folks to hospital and brown fentanyl brought on quite a few overdoses.
Out of 55 drug-checking assessments accomplished final month, solely 38 per cent of drugs got here again as anticipated.
“We had been truly capable of inform these purchasers, who had been capable of get the phrase out on the road instantly, that that is not one thing that anyone desires to be utilizing,” stated Brittany D’Angelo, NWCHC’s director of psychological well being and substance use applications.
Brittany D’Angelo, director of psychological well being and substance use applications for NWCHC in Thunder Bay, says with the ability to check medicine introduced in from the streets is vital in stopping hurt amongst purchasers. (Marc Doucette/CBC)
Employees educated purchasers about road medicine containing family cleaners and animal tranquillizers.
“We additionally see issues like benzodiazepines within the provide or opioids which can be even stronger than what it’s the individual was which means to purchase,” D’Angelo stated. “We’re even seeing [opioids] the place any person wasn’t even which means to purchase an opioid.”
Having the ability to check medicine additionally provides health-care suppliers a greater sense of what they’re coping with, she stated.
‘He did not need to die’
Debbie Reed misplaced her son Johnny in March 2020. She describes him as a lover of the outside who loved fishing, tenting, taking part in sports activities and spending time along with his household.
“Johnny was ‘Mr. Humorous’ and he was tremendous good trying. We known as him ‘Hollywood’ and he knew it,” Reed stated.
Johnny died at age 29 after coping with habit for a decade. He left behind two younger daughters. Going to Path 525 was a part of his routine.
Debbie Reed of Thunder Bay holds a photograph of her son, Johnny, who died at 29 after coping with habit for a decade. Reed says Johnny often accessed providers from Path 525. (Sarah Regulation/CBC)
“He relied on that service there and he received his medicine examined there as a result of he did not need to die,” Reed stated. “He wished to get off the medicine and he knew that there was counselling and remedy there.”
Since her son’s loss of life, Reed has turn out to be concerned in Thunder Bay’s restoration group and has discovered therapeutic by means of connecting with different moms who’ve misplaced kids to habit.
To her, closing Path 525 means disconnecting purchasers from a system that retains them alive.
“They are not lifeless and their households are without end grateful. These are the folks that Doug Ford wants to speak to, not the individuals who converse out in opposition to this program as a result of they do not perceive it,” Reed stated.
He relied on that service there, and he received his medicine examined there as a result of he did not need to die.- Debbie Reed of Thunder Bay, Ont., says of her late son
Along with conserving Path 525 open, Reed desires to see extra docs providing habit providers in Thunder Bay, extra coaching round psychological well being and substance use and remedy choices within the new correctional complicated underneath building.
For now, she leans on the power of Thunder Bay’s restoration group.
“After I sit with my arms wrapped round these guys, I can really feel my son smiling down at me as a result of there’s nothing that he would love greater than to see his mother getting higher — and getting higher with the enjoyment of restoration,” she stated of her journey by means of grief.
Baker has turn out to be a registered volunteer at Path 525 and helps clear up the neighbourhood. His plan was to wean off the safer provide program to ease into restoration. If this system ends earlier than he reaches that aim, he is not positive what he’ll do.
“Proper now, I need the liberty of getting a traditional life,” he stated.
An occasion is deliberate for Wednesday, Aug. 28, at Waverley Park from 11 a.m. till 2 p.m. ET in recognition of Worldwide Overdose Consciousness Day on the finish of this month. The occasion will characteristic group useful resource cubicles, a group artwork exercise, overdose prevention coaching, free naloxone kits and actions to honour those that died or have been injured by overdose.
