Drug checking, consumption site supported in Hamilton opioid action plan

A Hamilton, Ont., committee has given its thumbs up to move forward on a public health action plan that includes a couple of short-term pilot projects to fight opioid abuse in the city.

Councillors are backing ideas that call for about $1 million in spending over two years to keep drug users safe.

One of the short-term initiatives is a one-year drug checking and surveillance pilot starting in October measuring the toxicity of drugs in the community.

“Drug checking allows for the analysis of an individual drug supply,” Hamilton Public Health Manager Melissa Biksa explained.

“There are many different models out in the community on how drug checking could be operationalized.”

Test kits are an emerging technology offering a glimmer of hope for drug users that involves the mixing of a substance with water and dropping the mixture on the strip.

Biksa revealed contaminants like Benzodiazepine and Xylazine, which can be identified through legitimate test strips, have been found in the community through public health testing in the first quarter of 2023.

Also in the plan is an 18-month pilot which would scale up supervised consumption sites by placing one in a men’s shelter.

The latest statistics confirm 142 overdose deaths in Hamilton, between September 2022 and April of this year, according to the province’s chief coroner.

Figures also show paramedics responded to 636 suspected overdoses during that time period.

Seventy-three per cent of the deaths happened within private homes.

Most of the deaths, over 30 per cent, happened across the city’s L8L and L8P forward sorting areas which encompass the bulk of the lower city centre including wards 1, 2 and 3.

A new youth prevention program, increasing access and support for shelters as well as adding new safe consumption sites were some of the medium to long-term goals suggested.

The city declared a state of emergency in Hamilton as it relates to homelessness, mental health and opioid addiction in April.

The measure was presented by Stoney Creek’s Brad Clark in mid-January who said the goal of the declaration, similar to one that was approved earlier this year in Niagara Region, is to get provincial attention and funding.

The hope is to convince Ontario that a task force on opioids is needed in addition to more harm-reduction programs as well as lifting of caps on consumption and treatment services.

Mayor Andrea Horwath said the city needs to stop “kicking the problem down the road” and start putting “our shoulder to the wheel” to get programs into place.

“I don’t know that we can solve them, but we really need to start taking them seriously. It’s our responsibility to do so.”

Opioid deaths have increased in Ontario by more than 100 per cent since 2017 and took a marked jump when the pandemic hit in March 2020.

The opioid-related death rate is 45 per cent greater in Hamilton compared with Ontario overall.

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