Montreal opens first mobile supervised injection clinic in North America

By Ashifa Kassam

Montreal has launched the first mobile supervised injection clinic in North America, as part of a package of services aimed at fighting back against an opioid crisis that has claimed thousands of lives across Canada.

On Monday – after years of lobbying by community organisations – the city opened its first safe injection site, alongside a two-booth mobile unit that will make its way through the downtown core. The services, which offer a medically supervised space and sterile equipment for people who use drugs intravenously, are Canada’s first such facilities outside of British Columbia.

“It’s an emotional day,” said Louis Letellier de St-Just of Cactus Montréal, the organisation responsible for one of the sites. “These people need services. They’re people that have had a hard life – most of them – and they need to be supported.”

A third safe injection site will open in the coming days, while plans are in the works for another site to be set up in the autumn. Together the services are expected to accommodate up to 300 visits per day.

Montreal, home to 1.7 million people, sees about 70 overdose deaths a year, said Letellier de St-Just. “And it’s too much. We have between 4,000 and 5,000 injecting drug users. This is a huge community and they need services.”

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Thumbnail: Flickr CC eyeimage needle