Stopping the delivery of harm-reduction materials, such as clean needles, to the tiny cabins project in Chatham is not the right move, and would send all the wrong messages.
North Kent Coun. Rhonda Jubenville proposed the cessation of the delivery of such items to Pathways on Park, which is supposed to be a drug-free living facility. She made the motion at the Feb. 9 council meeting, and council opted to send the issue to the board of health.
Jubenville said she believes that “having an overabundance” of harm-reduction supplies such as “needles and pipes” does nothing to help addicts head towards recovery.
She is 100-per-cent correct. But that is not the reasoning for the provision of harm-reduction supplies. The intent is to help addicts use in a more sterile manner and help protect against several blood-borne ailments.
As Dr. Shanker Nesathurai, C-K’s medical officer of health told council, “We’re not endorsing the underlying conduct. What we want people to do is for them to live one more day.”
Furthermore, our municipal health team can’t deviate from the Ontario government’s Health and Promotion Act.
“I think that anything that would impede the equal access to vital life-saving public health services is not consistent with the Health Protection and Promotion Act,” Nesathurai told council.
Let’s face it; at a higher level beyond municipal governance, the goal is to reduce the impact on the costs of health care as well. Clean needles reduce the chances of HIV and Hepatitis.
Should people staying at Pathways use illegal drugs? According to our laws, no.
But then, that applies to everyone, not just the people of Pathways.
One cannot deny them access to services available to everyone living anywhere else in the municipality. That just exacerbates the stigma surrounding our homeless.
The issue is not preventing people living on one plot of land in Chatham-Kent from accessing harm-reduction materials through on-site delivery. Anyone reading this editorial could contact CK Public Health and ask for a harm-reduction kit to be delivered to their place of residence.
The harm-reduction kits don’t encourage people to use illicit drugs. They do help facilitate, true. But such kits aren’t illegal, just as selling bongs prior to the decriminalization of marijuana was not against the law.
