A new report from the organization running Manitoba’s only overdose prevention site recommends the government offer safer supply drugs and establish multiple supervised consumption sites throughout the province.
“If we truly want to stop toxic drug poisonings, we should look at having a safe and sanctioned drug supply,” the report from Sunshine House, which is an evaluation of the first year of operations at the Mobile Overdose Prevention Site (MOPS).
The 91-page report, released Thursday, also recommends that safer drug-use spaces should offer a range of services including counselling, addictions treatment, testing for sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections, and options to test drugs. It recommends pairing overdose prevention sites such as MOPS, which is peer-run and operates out of an RV, with permanent supervised consumption sites that would offer a broader range of services.
The recommendations come at a time when the provincial government is beginning consultations regarding the eventual establishment of a promised supervised consumption site in downtown Winnipeg. The province hopes to open such a site next year.
The Sunshine House report, prepared by LAHRK Consulting, draws on data from MOPS’s first year of operations — November 2022 to October 2023 — as well as focus groups, media reports, academic literature and surveys with community members. More than 600 people were consulted.
The report states the operation of any future sites should include input peers — people with lived experience using substances.
MOPS received more than 26,000 visits during its first year of operations. The report states visits increased steadily as more people became aware of the service, with as many as 220 people visiting in one day.
People didn’t always come to use drugs, but sometimes for community connections and to socialize, the report states. There were 20 instances when someone overdosed, representing 0.08 per cent of all visits. All were revived, and no one died.
There were four times when people were taken to hospital, at their request.
katrina.clarke@freepress.mb.ca
Katrina Clarke
Investigative reporter
Katrina Clarke is an investigative reporter with the Winnipeg Free Press.