Nanaimo will put off a permanent supervised drug consumption site, but there’s still a will to find solutions.
Safe consumption and drug addiction and its related problems were up for public debate this week as the City of Nanaimo held a hearing to consider rezoning for a permanent supervised consumption site on Wesley Street. Business owners and neighbourhood associations were vehemently against a permanent safe consumption site in their part of town, and council chose not to advance the rezoning bylaw.
Through all the opposition, though, there was acknowledgement that something needs to be done. Coun. Bill Yoachim pointed out that when talking about drug users, we shouldn’t use language like ‘us’ and ‘them’ – this is a challenge for the community as a whole.
We don’t believe that councillors rejected permanent supervised drug consumption just to appease the business owners. Some believe there are better models that would see the social service decentralized and available in other parts of town.
We’ve written before that we need to respond to the overdose crisis with a multi-faceted strategy. Supervised consumption has to be a part of that. The service has to be downtown because that’s where it can best meet its intent of harm reduction. For now, Nanaimo’s temporary safe consumption site checks those boxes; Island Health sees more potential for mental health and addictions treatment in a permanent site. Perhaps there are creative ways to expand those services at a temporary location, too.
As B.C. comes closer to determining the makeup of its next provincial government, there could be new direction on the file. Both the NDP and Green parties made election promises to create a ministry of mental health and addiction and we imagine the opioid crisis would be prominent in a new ministry’s mandate.
Ultimately, it will take a local response. Supervised consumption is a challenge because it provides solutions and causes problems. But rejecting a permanent safe consumption site just means that it’s time to start thinking about what else we can do.