Peel’s opioid strategy hangs in the balance as Ford refuses to back down on shuttering of supervised consumption sites

The Region of Peel’s response to the opioid crisis has been upended by the PC government’s decision to close several supervised consumption sites across the province, sparking fear over Peel’s efforts to reduce an alarming number of deadly opioid poisonings within its borders.Over the last decade the health and social harms associated with the overdose crisis have been worsening, with an increasingly toxic drug supply across the region. Between 2005 and 2013 an average of 26 opioid toxicity deaths were reported in Peel annually, but as the street drug supply became more contaminated with deadly additives like fentanyl, the number of people dying from laced drugs surged.