In Canada, Safe Consumption Sites, Children Under 16

"If the Liberals' proposed digital safety bill passes as written, Canada would enter a unique legal environment in which its minors would be barred from accessing social media, but would still be able to inject illicit drugs at a government-run safe consumption site."

"Thus, Canadian 15-year-olds could soon face a regime in which they are not allowed to use Facebook, but could face no barriers to injecting fentanyl at a government-run facility."

"The relatively easy access of harm reduction services to Canadian minors stands in contrast to a growing number of areas in which authorities are looking to impose ever-tighter age restrictions, a federal social media ban being only the latest example."

Tristin Hopper, Journalist, National Post 

 

"Youth under 19 years of age can access harm reduction supplies, naloxone, overdose prevention services, and, in appropriate circumstances, witnessed consumption by a regulated or nonregulated health or social service provider, without a capacity assessment."

"[If minors were to be denied access to supervised drug consumption, it risked creating a] lasting imprint on the relationship between the youth and the health system." 

"[Children were cleared to use drugs at] nonregulated [facilities, even] without a capacity assessment."

British Columbia Medical Journal, 2023 paper 

The Sandy Hill Community Health Centre on Nelson Street opened a supervised consumption site in 2018. (CBC)

Heaven forfend that underage children -- facing a concerned health system that denied them free-and-easy access to recreational drugs to speed them along the passage from youthful curiosity to hard-core drug use, a life of unregulated indiscipline, the incapacity to hold down a job, live a normal life, facing the potential for homelessness, criminality and poverty -- end up resenting a federal health authority from roadblocking them from the full realization of negative future prospects.

 

In woke societies, which Canada has become, it is wrong and socially inept leading to great harm in self-esteem to deny youth the intriguing opportunities to explore new horizons in an atmosphere, current and growing, where recreational narcotics are cool, and 'everyone' does it, so why not me? In households where parents too, value the use of soft drugs to enhance their lives, it is only natural that their offspring gravitate to similar habits. Presuming that adults can be more cautious and observe limits, it's unlikely that children are imbued with a similar sense of caution, with curiosity impelling them toward 'enhanced' trips into the promised world of deep self-exploration.

 

Hydromorphone, a type of opioid, is pictured at a managed opioid program in Ottawa, Ont. Most patients who take prescription opioids such as hydromorphone or fentanyl patches in B.C., will have to do so under the supervision of a pharmacist or health professional. (Ashley Burke/CBC)

 

"Supervised consumption services save lives and benefit communities. Supervised consumption sites provide a safe, clean space for people to bring their own drugs to use, in the presence of trained staff. This prevents accidental overdoses and reduces the spread of infectious diseases, such as HIV."

"Supervised consumption sites may offer a range of evidence-based harm reduction services, such as drug checking. The sites also provide access to important health and social services, including substance use treatment for those who are ready."

Government of Canada 

"If someone comes to the [safe consumption] site looking for help and a place to be supported when they're using a substance, there is no requirement for ID", stated Health Canada official Kendal Weber, affirming no age limit for service at safe consumption sites. Canada's supervised drug consumption clinics were pioneered as a social welfare experiment in British Columbia. The rationale behind the sites was well-intentioned; for government to step in with a social solution to the growing epidemic of drug overdoses that became a public menace with the introduction of fentanyl flooding Canadian streets.

 

"In B.C., there is no set age when a child is considered capable to give consent. This means there is no legal age limit for youth to access harm reduction services", an information sheet by Interior Health, part of the provincial government's health authority, states. And nor is parental consent sought when servicing the perceived needs of an underage person. The use of the sites was diversionary as well as ostensibly geared toward protecting the vulnerable. With drugs and paraphernalia available free of charge to users there would be no need for them to seek out more harmful drugs than what was available free.

Harm Reduction Coalition

 

What was eventually revealed is that drug users all too frequently eschewed the use of the free drugs like hydromorphone. It wasn't long before the free drugs were being sold in the street, the profit used to buy fentanyl instead. In Quebec there is a policy of distributing free syringes, snorting straws and allied drug equipment for children as young as 14, through its harm reduction sites. "People who wish to obtain drug injection equipment do not need to register anywhere, consult someone to get a referral or have a Quebec health insurance card", an official guide states online.

 

That same guide alerts users under 14 that though ID is not checked for access to "safe drug use equipment", young users are expected to "meet with a healthcare professional in order to access new consumption equipment". As an accompaniment to the distribution of drug use equipment, a healthcare worker will carefully explain to the 14-year-old how best to use the equipment; how very convenient, assuaging the conscience of those that make the rules that children whose parents are not notified are being taught nonetheless best-practise in the use of drug paraphernalia.

 

A client shoots up drugs at a safe injection site in Vancouver. Photo by Handout/File