The Quebec government has tabled legislation that would ensure a minimum 150-metre distance between supervised injection sites and schools and daycares.
Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant says the bill would grant his department new powers to approve or refuse a new site allowing the supervised consumption of drugs.
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The minister tabled the legislation following some controversy over Montreal’s first supervised drug-inhalation centre run by Maison Benoît Labre, a local non-profit.
The site provides a centre for people experiencing homelessness as well as a supervised drug-use site, not far from a local school.
The Quebec government is in favour of sites offering evidence-based harm reduction services and says it has a duty to provide safe spaces for everyone who uses the sites as well as those who live nearby.
The department says the number of safe consumption sites increased from four in 2020 to 14 in 2024, the year the province recorded at least 485 deaths linked to suspected opioid or drug poisoning.
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