2 years in, Yukon's supervised consumption site is a proven success, officials say

Yukon's first supervised consumption site for drug users is exceeding expectations and saving lives, according to the territorial government and the non-profit that helps run the facility.

The site, at 6189 Sixth Ave. in Whitehorse, opened a little over two years ago and was designed to provide a safer and more hygienic environment for people to use drugs under the supervision of qualified medical staff. 

"We've exceeded what we had initially thought the reach was going to be," said Brontë Renwick-Shields, executive director of the Blood Ties Four Directions Centre. The organization operates the site in partnership with the Yukon government.

"It's just been very positive in terms of the way that it's increased the health and well-being of people who use drugs in our community."

When it opened in September 2021, Yukon became the sixth jurisdiction in Canada to open a supervised consumption site. About eight months later, the Yukon facility added an area for users who inhale their drugs and Renwick-Shields said that made a big change.

"We knew that without the smoke room, the use of the site would be limited because at the site right now approximately 95 per cent of consumptions are smoking," she said.

"As soon as that opened, we started to see like a significant increase in uptake in the site. And that of course builds over time." 

As of the end of last month, there had been 6,869 visits to the site by 382 different people. There had been 6,008 consumptions on site.

Renwick-Shields also said last week that facility staff had responded to 51 overdoses since opening, and all were successfully dealt with.

The usage of the site continues to increase, Renwick-Shields says, with as many visits in the last six months as in the previous 18 months. She chalks that up a growing familiarity and trust in the facility, rather than an significant increase in the number of drug users.

"The majority of folks, [drug use] is something that's been a part of their life for a while," she said.

"The concept of using substances in a space that was safe, and where there won't be police interference was really foreign to folks, and that took a lot of time for us to build trust that wouldn't happen in that space."

She says more people are also using Blood Ties' drug-testing service, and she believes that's because they can now consume those drugs at the same place. Before, people would have to go elsewhere to consume the drugs after testing.

'We're becoming a leader'

Cameron Grandy, director of the Yukon government's Mental Wellness and Substance Use Services, agrees that the facility has proven to be a success when it comes to harm reduction.

"We get phone calls now from sites down south who are looking to maybe put in a smoking room. We're becoming a leader in how do you effectively run a site that has maybe indoor inhalation but is also an integrated care site."

To Grandy, the initiative fits well with the spirit of the territory's substance use health emergency strategy, a broad-ranging, 60-page "road map" released in August, 17 months after the territorial government's declaration of a substance use emergency in the Yukon. 

He points to the fact that the site allows those who so wish to then access other addictions or mental health resources.

"There isn't one approach ... there's a really non-judgmental, safe, and meet-you-where-you're-at approach, and that kind of can branch into other different options for folks," he said.

"Again, it's exceeded expectations in terms of the trust that's been built in, in how quickly people have felt comfortable using that, and the lives that have been saved."

The facility has also been responsive to feedback, he says — for example, by shifting its opening hours from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., to instead be noon to 9 p.m. That's because people were looking to access the site later in the evening, he said.

The next step will be to open the facility seven days a week, something that should soon be approved, according to Grandy. Right now, the site is open Monday to Friday only.

Once the new schedule is approved, additional staff would need to be hired and trained and neither Grandy nor Renwick-Shields could say exactly how long it all might take. 

"So can't give a date, but very soon," Grandy said.

"I think that's really important for the clientele, that we serve to make it more consistent, seven days a week, and adding a couple of additional resources — just because of the volume of individuals and frequency with which they're using the site."