The executive director of Prairie Harm Reduction (PHR) says Pierre Poilievre’s statements on supervised consumption sites are “uneducated.”
Poilievre has recently referred to the sites as “drug dens” that the Conservative government would seek to close and not provide “a single taxpayer dollar.”
“As public health advocates and experts, we find it essential to correct these misconceptions and highlight the critical role that safe consumption sites play in harm reduction and community health,” PHR said in a news release on Tuesday.
Prairie Harm Reduction’s safe consumption site in Saskatoon is pictured Sept. 30, 2020.
The sites are intended to prevent overdoses by allowing people to bring their drugs to use under the observation of trained staff. Pubs are essentially supervised consumption sites for alcohol, although in that case they both sell the intoxicant and monitor its use.
For drug users, the sites also provide access to clean supplies to reduce …