Thread by @elsthomson

Safeworks, #Calgary's only supervised consumption site, will be closed by @YourAlberta in the area hit hardest by drug poisoning (red).

Soon after taking power in 2019, the govt cancelled a planned Calgary East mobile site - 2nd hardest-hit (yellow).

edmontonjournal.com/news/local-new…

@YourAlberta @JyotiGondek @DanWMcLean @SonyaSharpYYC @JenniferWyness @YYCTKW @pootmans @chabot4calgary @kourtpenner @CWalcottYYC @gccarra And yes, the province plans to "replace" the SCS capacity with two overdose prevention sites inside shelters (community access barriers currently unclear). But we've already seen how shuttering services plays out in #Edmonton.

https://twitter.com/elsthomson/status/1545169245708828672?s=20&t=vy4pYbo3XAEjaFzW6eiD_Q

We also know how closing the supervised consumption site worked out in #Lethbridge.

It was, incredibly, AB's only supervised inhalation site. Around 50% of poisoning deaths follow inhalation use.

Still think this isn't intentional policy?

lethbridgenewsnow.com/2022/06/06/let…

And you don't just "replace" supervised consumption sites any more than your favourite bar closes and an Earl's opens across town. Especially under the UCP.

(Lol, can you imagine the bar they'd open. You wouldn't go, trust me.)

Not that I'm suggesting hyper-medicalized, aseptic SCS are the way of the future or anything. But it's about the people. Like Cheers.

Let me just add as a final thought since I'm drinking beer right now: if you drink alcohol, use coffee to 'wake up', or even consume chocolate to give you a lift at work, maybe find it in yourself to allow space for others to use their drug of choice? People are dying.

It's clear from the data that Calgary needs to maintain Safeworks PLUS open new supervised consumption services at:

Bowness
Sunalta
Kensington
Downtown-East
Forest Lawn
Marlborough
Centre Street-North
Chinook Centre

End of story.