Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs Logo (SACPA)

By Justin Goulet

Lethbridge Overdose Prevention Society member speaks at SACPA

Nov 5, 2020 | 11:13 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – One of the founders of the Lethbridge Overdose Prevention Society was the special guest at the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs’ (SACPA) meeting Thursday morning.

At the end of this summer, the ARCHES-operated Supervised Consumption Site (SCS) officially ceased supervised consumption services. A mobile overdose prevention site was opened, operated by Alberta Health.

Three weeks later, an unsanctioned injection site popped up in Galt Gardens, organized by a group of concerned citizens known as the Lethbridge Overdose Prevention Society (LOPS).

READ MORE: Galt Gardens pop-up injection site moves location 2^nd night

Kaley Ann Boudoin is one of the founders of the LOPS and presented to SACPA on Thursday. She laid out exactly what an overdose prevention site is.

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“Overdose prevention sites were established as a community-based response to overdose deaths and the sluggish bureaucracy associated with SCS applications,” she said.

“Overdose prevention sites tend to be peer-run, so meaning [they are] run by people who use drugs and are bear-bones facilities, sometimes consisting of a tent in a public park where people can use their illicit drugs and access sterile harm reduction equipment as well as receive emergency overdose response as needed.”

Boudoin said many people prefer an OPS to an SCS, because overdose prevention sites “fill a critical gap in the spectrum of harm reduction”.

“That’s because they’re often lower barrier for access than SCS and offer the expertise and direct experience of experiential peer workers – other people who use drugs – are often more trusted by their fellow drug users,” she said.

“Oftentimes, the OPS will allow modes for consumption that ae prohibited at most SCS, such as inhalation. That’s something that LOPS is working towards and actually was offered at the ARCHES SCS, so in our community, it’s a little bit different.”

Boudoin said pop-up overdose prevention sites are “nimble” and can respond to community needs quickly.

“Despite the huge success of overdose prevention sites in saving lives, as well as an existence of Ministerial Orders in most provinces, many municipalities and health authorities have failed in their responsibility and remain hostile towards folks who set up the overdose prevention sites in communities.”

Her full presentation can be viewed below, courtesy of SACPA on YouTube.

SACPA says it reached out to several individuals in the community with opposing views to the OPS, “offering them the opportunity to present those views to [SACPA’s] audience”.

SACPA says none of those offers were accepted.

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