Harm reduction workers feeling the effects of Sask. ‘recovery-based’ strategy [Video]

Three months since the Government of Saskatchewan stopped funding single use pipes and needles for safe consumption sites – those working on the ground with people battling addiction say the effects are clear.

“I watched as we went from everyone being able to be safe, [to] someone in an alley actually using bleach because they found a needle off of the ground to clean it off,” harm reduction outreach worker, Brittany Cook said.

The change in policy came into effect in February. Since then, workers like Cook have called on the province to reverse course.

• ‘There is no safe use’: Sask. government defends decision to restrict harm reduction measures

“We’re simply insisting that the needle exchange be what it was originally intended to be – which is an exchange,” Minister of Mental and Health Addictions Tim McLeod told CTV News. “Over the past decade we saw that needle exchange has …