Regina organization seeking community feedback on proposed supervised consumption site

The Nēwo-Yōtina Friendship Centre is asking the Regina Heritage community to provide feedback on the proposed development of a long-term supervised consumption site.

The site will help prevent overdoses in the Heritage neighbourhood, the organization said. The centre is inviting the community to fill out a short survey to give their input.

“If someone is going to use drugs anyways, it’s best for them to be in the safest environment possible where there are also services to help them if they want to get help for their addictions,” said Nicola Kimber, mental wellness support worker at the centre.

“I don’t see drugs going anywhere. It’s always going to be here and it’s going to get worse and people need to be educated and understand,” said Fernanda Horse, resolution health support worker at the centre.

The centre is applying for federal exemption for their building at 1635 11th Ave. to host the site.

An exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act is necessary to be able to operate the site since it is prohibited to possess controlled substances to operate a supervised consumption site for medical purposes in Canada, according to the Government of Canada.

“It’s important to get that exemption because it’s important to have safe injection sites in Regina, so that we’re helping our community out, so that we’re lowering HIV stats and we’re lowering overdose stats,” said Emile Gariepy, harm reduction manager at the centre.

“Getting an inhalation room in here would mean that we can prevent even more overdoses because most of the overdoses that I do to are just somebody who has smoked fentanyl.”

Following successful completion of an application, Health Canada would grant an exemption to the site. However, that does not always mean the site will be available to the public yet.