Cover Photo: Laurent Vu The/AFP via Getty Images
Between January and August 2021, a total of 14 people in Canada’s Yukon territory died from opioid-related overdoses. When put up against Yukon’s population of 42,000, that’s a mere .03%, but it’s still enough to give the territory the highest death rate among all Canadian territories and provinces. Additionally, it’s more than double the number of opioid-related deaths in the territory in 2020.
This has led to the creation of a safe drug consumption site in Whitehorse, Yukon, which opened its doors late last month. The site allows drug users to consume their product – whether orally, nasally, or by injection – under the supervision of medical professionals. The operation was a group effort, launched with help from the Yukon government as well as the Blood Ties Four Directions Centre.
Unfortunately, the site cannot currently accommodate users who ingest their substances via smoking, which is the most popular method of consumption in the region. The biggest obstacle preventing this service is the law that prohibits indoor smoking, which the centre hopes to find a way to work around. A room for smokers has already been built. However, a high-quality air filter is required, something that’s become hard to come by during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite these setbacks, the centre hopes to offer this service soon. Brontë Renwick-Shields, the executive director of Blood Ties Four Directions, expects the site to get a lot more traffic once the smoking room is up and running.
The inaccessibility of air filters isn’t the only way the pandemic has negatively impacted the operation. The site was initially scheduled to open in August but wasn’t able to stay on schedule due to a shortage of labour, affecting both site personnel and renovations. Due primarily to Covid-19 regulations, the maximum occupancy is ten people, which includes the staff. This means that only three visitors can use the building at once.
There are now a total of 37 safe consumption sites across the country, which have not only reduced overdoses among drug users but have also been providing drug and alcohol education, oxygen treatments, and the opioid-combatting drug naloxone.
The Yukon site isn’t just a safe place to use drugs. People who come in can also access mental wellness, housing, and addictions counselling services. If they simply want to use the space to consume drugs, however, participation in these services is in no way required.
Though these same issues persist across Canada, the problem in the North is unique in that it’s a rural area with scattered populations and a lack of accessible health services. These circumstances only increased the need for harm reduction services, of which Blood Ties Four Directions is the only organization in the North providing such services.
Renwick-Shields hopes that the Yukon site is the start of a bigger, country-wide movement.
“As harm reduction initiatives and supervised consumption site interest grows, the other territories will be able to provide our lessons learned and our feedback from building this site to [their] communities and help them build more initiatives.”
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