Release Date
Geography
Language of Resource
Full Text Available
Open Access / OK to Reproduce
Peer Reviewed
Objective
On August 20th, 2024, the Ontario provincial government announced new legislation that would force the closure of most of Ontario’s 17 supervised consumption services (SCS). The government announced this ban without presenting any supporting scientific, clinical, or public health evidence. This report, prepared by the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation, is intended to fill this gap.
Findings/Key points
Based on this comprehensive evidence review, the following steps are recommended:
- Reverse the decision to close SCS in Ontario.
- Make public all scientific evidence related to the government's decision to ban SCS.
- In line with tax-payer expert records, provide SCS with increased funding to expand their services and mitigate any public safety issues that may arise.
- Meaningfully expand Ontario's substance use treatment system.
- Properly fund a comprehensive system of care for substance use that integrates SCS, other frontline service providers, a responsive treatment system and supportive housing.
Design/methods
A comprehensive evidence review utilizing data from multiple data sources, including: 1) evidence compiled by the provincial government itself; 2) international scientific evidence; as well as evidence from an ongoing Toronto-based scientific evaluation of supervised consumption services in Ontario on 3) public health impacts of supervised consumption services; and 4) the association between supervised consumption services and major crimes in Toronto.
