Guelph Politicast

As we do at the end of August, we’re marking Drug Poisoning Awareness Day, and it hasn't been a great week for the people fighting this issue. Last week, the Ontario government decided that no safe consumption site can be within 200 metres of a school or daycare, including the one at Guelph Community Health Centre. The drug poisoning crisis is not getting any better, and now there’s the possibility that it’s going to get worse. In 2023, at least 62 community members died due to substance-related fatalities Guelph and Wellington according to new data from the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario. This is the highest number of lives lost on record. This is on top of the fact that someone dies from drug poisoning every two-and-a-half hours across Ontario. The conditions are dire, any progress being made is slow going, and there's the constant presence of stigma to overcome. What’s been clear in the last several weeks is that this community is reaching what Dr. Erin Dej called “compassion fatigue”; fed up with