Windsor's drug consumption, treatment site application won't move forward: provincial government
Windsor's first-ever drug consumption and treatment site, SafePoint, won't be reopening its doors, according to the provincial government.
On Tuesday, provincial health minister Sylvia Jones said the government would not be approving any more drug consumption and treatment service (CTS) sites. Windsor's SafePoint, which closed at the end of December 2023, was waiting on approval from the provincial government.
Supervised consumption sites allow people to use drugs under supervision to reduce the risk of overdose.
Conservative MPP for Essex, Anthony Leardi, told CBC News that Windsor's site won't be moving forward.
"There will be no new injection sites," said Leardi, who is also the parliamentary assistant for the minister of health.
"What this means specifically for Windsor is that the application that was on file for an injection site ... will not be allowed to proceed."
The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) had opened SafePoint at Goyeau and Wyandotte Street East in April 2023 after it got federal approval to operate as an urgent public health needs site.
The health unit had been temporarily funding the site, until it got provincial approval.
But, it's application was held up for more than a year, while the Ontario government undertook a province-wide review of all sites following a shooting near a CTS in Toronto in August 2023.
The province also announced that it will force consumption and treatment service facilities within 200 metres of schools and child-care centres to close.
More to come.
