EDMONTON—Supervised consumption sites have reversed more than 4,000 overdoses since their opening in Alberta, according to a new report by the Alberta Community Council on HIV (ACCH).

The report, released late last week, hopes to shed light on the benefits of supervised consumption sites in the province, with its authors looking to meet with the government’s review panel on the sites to discuss the report’s findings further. The ACCH is a non-profit organization whose membership includes Alberta’s six consumption sites. The report uses data self-reported by the sites, as well as external academic studies on harm reduction and public data on crime, needle debris and overdose numbers.

The report was compiled in light of a pause on funding for three additional proposed drug consumption sites in Medicine Hat, Calgary and Red Deer, as well as a pending government review on Alberta’s existing sites.

“There was nothing that showed at a provincial level the impact collectively of all of these sites,” Celeste Hayward, executive director of ACCH, said of the report.

Hayward said she hopes her organization can present the report’s findings to the government’s panel, which has been tasked with reviewing the socioeconomic impact of supervised consumption sites in Alberta. The panel has been criticized, however, for its limited scope. Critics note it does not focus on the harm reduction benefits of sites, and some say this could result in the sites losing their funding altogether.

Associate health minister Jason Luan responded to this criticism, saying the panel acknowledges the evidence that supervised consumption contributes to harm reduction.

Hayward said the ACCH’s report acknowledges there are challenges that come with consumption sites, but she added the report shows there are very good reasons to keep supervised consumption sites open in Alberta’s communities.

“Ultimately, you can’t please everybody, but the loudest voice isn’t always right,” Hayward said.

Steve Buick, spokesperson for associate health minister Jason Luan, said it will ultimately be the panel’s decision on whether they will allow the ACCH to present their report. He did not confirm whether the panel has agreed to meet with the group. The panel is set to hold townhalls and meetings in the first three weeks of September, with a final report scheduled at the end of the year.

Opioid deaths continue to be a problem plaguing Alberta, according to provincial data, which states that more than 2,000 people in the province have died from opioid overdoses since 2016, 86 per cent of which were due to accidental fentanyl poisonings. However, there has been a 24 per cent decline in fentanyl deaths between the third quarter of 2018 to the first quarter of 2019.

According to the report, the sites have reversed more than 4,000 overdoses since they’ve opened.

“(The decline) in fentanyl deaths in Alberta suggests that the harm reduction strategies are working, and their continued expansion into communities of need is a priority,” the report argues.

Alberta has six supervised consumption sites — one in Calgary, three in Edmonton, one in Grande Prairie and one in Lethbridge. A temporary overdose prevention site is also operational out of Red Deer. The oldest consumption site is Calgary’s, which officially opened its doors in Nov. 2017.

Many have been critical of the sites since they’ve opened, particularly over their alleged impact on levels of needle debris in their surrounding communities, and have linked them to a rise in crime rates. People have also criticized the sites for not doing enough to link their users to treatment and recovery options, ultimately saying that money invested in the sites would be better spent on recovery and treatment options.

But ACCH’s report makes a case that needle debris has declined in Edmonton since the city’s sites opened. The reported amount of needle debris dropped 48 per cent since the city’s three downtown locations opened, according to data publicly available through the City of Edmonton’s website. The report attributes this to programs and response teams that operate out of the sites to collect and keep track of needles in their community.

A similar metric on needle debris was not provided for Calgary in the report, as the data is not publicly available, according to the report’s authors. But numbers reported by Alpha House show that more than 6,500 needles have been picked up the organization near the city’s site between January and June.

“(Site workers) are also part of a community and also don’t want to walk into a park and have needles on the ground,” Hayward said.

But concerns from the community continue to mount around Calgary’s only consumption site, as Calgary police continue to receive a larger number of service calls to the area. Statistics from April to June of this year show a whopping 725 more calls to police compared to the three-year average.

The report also makes a case for the economic benefits of supervised consumption sites, as they have shown to alleviate stress off of the province’s emergency health care system. The report cites provincial data stating that opioids have led to more than 39,000 emergency department visits from 2015 to 2018. Consumption sites, according to the report, have averted more than 3,700 emergency calls since their opening.

Separate studies, the report states, have also shown that sites alleviate direct and indirect costs “such as prevented overdoses, prevented HIV and Hepatitis C cases, health care costs, lost productivity, and loss of life.” The report refers to a study done in 2011 on HIV infections prevented by Vancouver’s oldest supervised consumption site, and another one in 2010 that looks at economic benefits that have stemmed from it.

Finally, the report makes a case that sites have been effective in connecting people who use drugs with recovery and treatment. More than 10,000 referrals to treatment have been made by consumption sites across Alberta, according to data provided by each of the individual sites. Edmonton sites have made the most number of referrals to treatment options, with more than 7,000 referrals in total.

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The report also says it’s difficult to estimate exactly how many individuals have recovered from their opioid addiction as a direct result of using the site. Hayward said this number is hard to track because many clients of the sites live transient lives, and most sites don’t have oversight on treatment and recovery options in their city.

Overall, Hayward said she hopes the report sheds light on both the positive and negative aspects that come with supervised consumption sites, as well as paint a comprehensive, province-wide look at their impact on communities. Hayward said she is ready to discuss any aspect of the report with the government’s consumption site panel.

“We need to talk about the whole picture,” she said.

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