Quebec OKs Montreal safe-injection sites

MONTREAL – The Quebec government has given the green light to a project introducing facilities in the Montreal area where drug users can legally and safely inject themselves, but it’s still far from becoming a reality.

Final approval for so-called safe-injection sites rests with the federal government, which has strongly criticized offering drug users legal spaces to consume illegal substances.

In order to operate a safe-injection site, the federal government must grant an exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

READ MORE: Toronto, Ottawa would benefit from safe injection sites

In 2011, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Ottawa’s refusal to renew the exemption for Vancouver’s injection site — the only one of its kind in Canada — was unconstitutional because it deprived people access to potentially life-saving medical care.

In response, the Conservative government tabled strict new legislation on safe-injection sites giving the federal health minister discretion to approve an application only under “exceptional circumstances” and only after applicants fulfil a long list of onerous obligations.

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The bill is currently being debated in the Senate.

Health Canada said in a statement that it doesn’t publicly comment on applications for such exemptions and there is no timetable for a decision on permits for four Montreal sites — three located in community organizations and a fourth that will be mobile.

Canada’s only legal, operating, safe-injection site — called Insite — has been operating in Vancouver since 2003.

Lucie Charlebois, Quebec’s junior public health minister, said safe-injection sites reduce the risk of drug overdoses and offer other social and health benefits.

Montreal is also in favour of the project.

READ MORE: Will Ottawa’s tightened rules stop supervised injection sites from opening?

Catherine Maurice, spokeswoman for Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, said the safe-injection file “is a priority for the mayor.”

She said the federal government’s approval should be a formality and while the city acknowledges it can’t be given a definitive date for when it can go ahead with the project, “we won’t wait for the federal government forever.”

If the project gets the go-ahead from Ottawa, the first injection site will be in Cactus Montreal, a community organization that works to prevent blood-born and sexually transmitted infections and which created North America’s first needle-exchange program in 1989.

The chairman of Cactus Montreal’s board of directors, Louis Letellier de St-Just, said Thursday he is happy with the development but doesn’t think the federal government will share in his enthusiasm.

Letellier de St-Just said the federal bill “is like a vice,” squeezing organization like his because the proposed law makes it extremely difficult to open and maintain a safe-injection facility.

“They closed the rules really tightly,” he said. “And I think the bill runs against (the spirit) of the 2011 Supreme Court decision.”