Groups in Lethbridge, Alta., to make request for safe site for drug consumption
LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — A southern Alberta city in the throes of an opioid crisis is the latest community planning to seek approval for a safe consumption site for drug users.
A coalition of community groups plans to submit a request at the end of July for one of the federally regulated sites in Lethbridge.
The facility would cost $1.5 million a year and would provide a legal consumption site where health professionals could oversee the use of drugs and ensure safety for users.
“It will reduce the number of overdose deaths and fatalities we are experiencing in our province, which is really at crisis levels. We are losing more people currently to overdose fatalities than we ever did at the height of the HIV epidemic,” said Jill Manning, managing director of the AIDS Outreach Community Harm Reduction Education Support Society (ARCHES).