STOP Society pushing city to declare public health emergency
Author of the article: Sudbury Star Staff
Publishing date: May 10, 2021 • 5 days ago • 4 minute read • STOP (Sudbury Temporary Overdose Prevention) Society volunteers Carla Ocampo, left, Kathy Savage and Karla Ghartey, a registered nurse and one of the group s founding members, arrange supplies at an overdose prevention site off Lloyd Street in 2019. Photo by Jim Moodie/Sudbury Star
Article content
A citizen group working to prevent overdose deaths is seeking contributions from the public, while pushing for a more permanent solution to the drug epidemic.
“While COVID has redefined every aspect of daily life for over a year, the opioid crisis has taken four times more lives in the Sudbury community this past year,” the Sudbury Temporary Overdose Prevention Society said in a release.
Ghartey partially blames the pandemic for the increase in deaths, since many social services were either reduced or suspended during 2020. The lack of temporary or affordable housing compounds the drug issue.
But she s also angry that despite two years of advocacy by STOPS to get a safe consumption site established in Greater Sudbury, it hasn t come to fruition. We are doing this voluntarily. We are out there every single night. Why is it that the community has to be doing this for two years now?
When it comes to reducing the number of deaths, Ghartey says there isn t any one answer.
Unsanctioned drug consumption site reopens in downtown Sudbury
There is once again a place where people who use drugs can go to be monitored for signs of an overdose in Sudbury.
Social Sharing
Posted: Dec 15, 2020 12:21 PM ET | Last Updated: December 15, 2020
The unsanctioned drug consumption site is located near a memorial to those who have died of opioid overdoses.(Sudbury Temporary Overdose Prevention Society (Facebook))
There is once again a place where people who use drugs can go to be monitored for signs of an overdose in Sudbury.
The unsanctioned drug consumption site is back after an absence of just under a year.