Ottawa Inner City Health CEO says province needs to step up to prevent rampant drug use

A local harm reduction group is saying the provincial government is not doing enough to prevent rampant drug use. 

Ottawa Inner City Health chief executive officer (CEO) Wendy Muckle recently told CityNews Ottawa that the summer of 2022 has been the worst they've ever seen for overdoses, not just locally, but across Canada. 

“If you look at the data from right across Canada, you see that overdoses and overdose death, which is how we measure overdoses, has gotten worse through the years of COVID, and doesn't seem to be showing any signs of settling down,” Muckle said. 

Muckle added it's not just opiates, as they are seeing more and more overdoses other forms of drugs that have been laced. 

“This is no longer an opiate crisis,” Muckle said. “We have a crisis in the stimulant market and in the cannabis market.”

Meanwhile, new preliminary data from Ontario's Office of the Chief Coroner shows opioids killed nearly 2,800 people in the province between April 2021 and this past March, a two per cent hike compared to the first year of the pandemic, and a large leap from 2019, when more than 1,500 people died of opioids.

Muckle told The Rob Snow Show on Aug. 29 that anyone who comes to a safe supply site, it's the first step into reaching out to get help, but admittedly, there's only so much they can do right now. 

“There's not enough housing and getting into addition treatment programs, there's long long waits for those kinds of things,” he said. 

Muckle noted that the provincial government needs to put in a bit more effort in preventing people from getting involved with drugs rather than helping them get out. 

“It's all fine to help people get out, but it would be great to prevent people from getting in,” she said.

Muckle said that often residents complain that safe supply site in their neighbourhoods are being overrun by people, but those people are seeking help and it's hard to provide them with the assistance they need with long wait times for addiction clinics and the lack of housing supply. 

She said drug use is often the result of outside factors such as mental health issues. 

“It's outside of our capacity to be able to prevent people from getting to the point where they need help around drugs,” she said. 

Senator Vernon White told The Rob Snow Show on Aug. 30 said it's time to provide people with addictions with the support they need. 

“I don't think we are gaining ground by treating people with an illness as if they are a criminal with simple possession,” he said. “We haven't gained much ground from that stand point.”

White, a former Ottawa police chief, noted that during his time with the Ottawa Police Service (OPS), there was not a lot of focus on laying charges for simple possession of drugs. 

“You were more likely to get a ticket for drinking a beer in the park rather than smoking a joint,” he said. 

Listen to the full interview with Vernon White below:

Listen to the full interview with Wendy Muckle below: