Saskatoon’s safe consumption site one step closer to opening

Saskatoon’s safe consumption site has taken another step towards being fully operational.

Construction is now complete at the AIDS Saskatoon site on 20th Street. The next step is to wait for the new provincial budget in the spring that should provide them with the funding needed to hire and train staff.

Currently, the city’s paramedics and police respond to hundreds of overdose calls a month. According to Jason Mercredi, executive director of AIDS Saskatoon, the opening of the site could greatly cut that number down.

“We are seeing an over-utilization of emergency services. If we had a site where people could use their drugs safely under the guidance of medical professionals, then we are going to have a better chance of increasing their connection to services,” he said.

“In addition to that, we are also going to have a higher likelihood of preventing those overdoses and so we can actually free up policing to do what they are supposed to do, and Medavie to do what they do with ambulatory services.”

On top of saving lives, Mercredi believes one of the other benefits the site will have for the community is decreasing the stigma around both drug use and safe consumption sites.

“Those folks are already using drugs, they are doing it in a public way. They are costing the system a lot of money, you just don’t necessarily see it. So this is about saving lives but it’s also about saving money so that we can re-allocate that money to necessary services such as policing,” he said.

“We are really looking forward to the implementation of the consumption site because it is going to show that this isn’t a big scary issue, that if you address it head-on instead of promoting fear and stigma, we can actually address this issue and be successful at it.”

If all goes according to plan, Mercredi hopes the site is operational by the end of May or early June.