Increased anti-drug enforcement will be in place in parts of Winnipeg in the coming days, police said, following an increase in open public drug use and sales.
Winnipeg police began deploying more officers in the areas most affected by the increase, including sections of downtown and Point Douglas, on Wednesday. Police determined which neighbourhoods will receive additional support based on data and community insights, Winnipeg police Chief Gene Bowers told reporters at a news conference on Friday.
“Public drug use is occurring in spaces where people live, work and gather, and it is not something our community should be expected to accept. It affects safety, public health and overall quality of life,” Bowers said.
As of the end of day on Thursday, police had 100 “interactions” with people using drugs in public, the service said.
Two charges, one for drug trafficking and another for drug possession, have been laid since Wednesday, according to Winnipeg police Supt. Brian Miln. The possession charge was laid due to the amount of drugs seized, as well as the fact that the person was already wanted.
“We are taking a zero-tolerance approach on people that are consuming drugs. People that are found consuming drugs will be detained (and) if there’s any product left, we will be seizing it,” he said at Friday’s news conference.
While in the affected communities, officers will also be on the lookout for people selling drugs, Miln added.
When asked why police are acting now, the superintendent responded that it is partly because they were unaware of the prominence of open drug use in Winnipeg.
“We as a service underestimated how problematic this is,” Miln said, adding the reports he’s heard from officers on the streets from the past two days showed him how widespread the issue has become.
Miln estimated 15-20 people were taken to hospital “for their own wellbeing” after interacting with police for publicly using drugs. The police chief affirmed that officers were told to address those people with empathy.
“Addiction is a health issue. Behind every instance of public drug use is a person, someone who may be dealing with trauma, mental health challenges, or significant hardship,” Winnipeg’s chief of police said.
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“These are members of our community too, and they need compassion, support and a pathway to recovery,” the police chief continued, adding the Winnipeg Police Service’s (WPS) response is trying to balance that reality with the concerns of residents encountering open drug use.
The WPS will work with social services and public health to manage open drug use, Bowers said.
Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham said he supports this WPS initiative and commended police’s commitment to compassionately ensuring public safety.
“This work will not solve the addictions crisis on its own, but it is a necessary step. It’s a necessary step to restore safety, connect people to help where possible and to make sure that public spaces in Winnipeg are safe for everyone and that Winnipeg’s image is improved,” he said.
Fentanyl, the mayor said, changed the way drugs are used in the city. He described the synthetic opioid as “more dangerous, more visible, and more destructive than anything we have ever seen before.”
“People should not have to breathe in toxic drug smoke when they’re waiting for a bus. Parents should not have to worry about needles in the park. Business owners should not have to deal with open drug use at their front doorstep,” Gillingham said.
“People struggling with addiction should not be left in these conditions either. That is not compassion, it is not safety and it’s not acceptable.”
The plan was also praised by the founders of some Winnipeg-based drug education groups.
“Winnipeg police have to step in and serve as a deterrent to open drug use to make our streets a little bit safer,” said Joseph Fourre, founder of the Singing Red Bear Foundation.
“Don’t get me wrong — I want help for the addict, but at the same time, harm reduction has to include the community.”
Fourre’s foundation works with Winnipeg’s youth to share the dangers of using drugs.
“One of the things that the city has been facing has been the open drug use in the downtown area, in the Main (Street) and Logan (Avenue) area. It’s been an issue now for some time,” he said.
The foundation founder is seven years in recovery from drugs. He said he understands the lengths to which people are willing to go to acquire drugs, but that harm reduction must protect drug users and the wider community.
“I still believe that we need detox. We need treatment – we need in-house treatment, but harm reduction has created this ideology that it’s OK to use drugs in public,” Fourre said.
“Taking their paraphernalia away will serve as a deterrent to not want to be using (drugs) openly.”
Marion Willis is the founder and executive director of the St. Boniface Street Links – a group who offers outreach to people struggling with homelessness.
She said the program “has been a long time coming,” but isn’t certain 10 days is enough time for WPS to address open drug use.
“This is something that should be ongoing, in the same way that it is illegal for there to be open liquor, (open drug use) should also be illegal,” she said.
Wilis said she doesn’t agree with the city’s past approaches.
“I think it has normalized drug use. It (has) normalized homelessness. It’s normalized petty crimes as survival crimes. It has normalized all those social issues that we actually should be working to address.”
She said while this current project may be unpopular with other advocates, she believes it is contributing to harm reduction by preventing fatal overdoses.
Others, such as Kate Sjoberg, the executive director at Resource Assistance for Youth (RaY), say they believe the increased enforcement will send people with addictions back into the shadows, instead of encouraging them to seek help.
“The more stressed out people are, the more they’re going to make mistakes they wouldn’t usually make that place them more at risk of the toxic drug supply,” Sjoberg told Global News.
“Collectively we’re very concerned about the people in Winnipeg that are already very vulnerable.”
She also said she fears the impact this will have on HIV rates in Winnipeg. Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s public health officer, declared a state of emergency in May.
“At this moment in time, it’s good for all Manitobans that people are actively ensuring that they’re using in the most safe way possible. And so, any time that we get in the way of that effort, every single Manitoban is less safe in a moment when we’re concerned about increasing spread of HIV,” Sjoberg said.
After the 10 days have passed, the chief of police said the WPS will speak with stakeholders and assess the enforcement’s effectiveness before deciding next steps.
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