Eug
Senior Member
Injection site for Toronto under study
Even as the future of Vancouver's controversial supervised drug injection site remains in doubt, a group of researchers are quietly studying whether Toronto and Ottawa would benefit from similar facilities.
The study, launched more than a year ago, will evaluate whether there is a need in the two cities for clean, staffed medical clinics where drug addicts can inject or use illegal drugs, including heroin and crack cocaine.
"This is not a study to see how to establish a site. This is a study to look at whether it makes sense to have a site or not, whether there should be one site or multiple sites or no sites, and whether the sites, if there should be any, should be fixed or mobile. We will be answering those types of questions," said Dr. Ahmed Bayoumi, a co-principal investigator of the study and scientist at the Centre for Research on Inner City Health at St. Michael's Hospital.
The feasibility study, dubbed the Toronto and Ottawa Supervised Consumption Assessment (TOSCA), was requested by the city. It stems from a recommendation in the Toronto Drug Strategy, which was approved by Toronto council in December 2005.
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I wonder if anything will come of this. I personally am not a supporter of this concept. I'm not a vehement antagonist either from the health point of view because there can possibly be some good that comes of it, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to live near one. Yes, when it comes to something like this, I'd most definitely be a NIMBYer.
IMO if they do create a single Insite site in Toronto, it will only serve concentrate illicit drug use in that area. The NIMBYists would be very justified in their concerns. To limit such concentration of drug use, if they opened Insites they'd have to open a whole bunch of them simultaneously. However, that'd probably generate even more bad blood from the voting public.
Even as the future of Vancouver's controversial supervised drug injection site remains in doubt, a group of researchers are quietly studying whether Toronto and Ottawa would benefit from similar facilities.
The study, launched more than a year ago, will evaluate whether there is a need in the two cities for clean, staffed medical clinics where drug addicts can inject or use illegal drugs, including heroin and crack cocaine.
"This is not a study to see how to establish a site. This is a study to look at whether it makes sense to have a site or not, whether there should be one site or multiple sites or no sites, and whether the sites, if there should be any, should be fixed or mobile. We will be answering those types of questions," said Dr. Ahmed Bayoumi, a co-principal investigator of the study and scientist at the Centre for Research on Inner City Health at St. Michael's Hospital.
The feasibility study, dubbed the Toronto and Ottawa Supervised Consumption Assessment (TOSCA), was requested by the city. It stems from a recommendation in the Toronto Drug Strategy, which was approved by Toronto council in December 2005.
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I wonder if anything will come of this. I personally am not a supporter of this concept. I'm not a vehement antagonist either from the health point of view because there can possibly be some good that comes of it, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to live near one. Yes, when it comes to something like this, I'd most definitely be a NIMBYer.
IMO if they do create a single Insite site in Toronto, it will only serve concentrate illicit drug use in that area. The NIMBYists would be very justified in their concerns. To limit such concentration of drug use, if they opened Insites they'd have to open a whole bunch of them simultaneously. However, that'd probably generate even more bad blood from the voting public.