WOODSTOCK – Mayor Jerry Acchione is warning his council colleagues to brace themselves to hear significant concern from citizens at an upcoming public meeting about a proposed supervised drug-use site in this city.
The meeting, scheduled for 1 pm Tuesday at city hall, has drawn significant interest from Woodstock residents who want to weigh in on the possible facility, in which users can use illegal drugs under the care of medical staff.
“I’ll warn council now, we have quite a few signed up already,” said Acchione, who expects most speakers to be opposed. “The general public I would definitely say is leaning more toward hesitancy.
“They’re not all against it, they’re certainly not all for it. The health community seems to be more in favor of this at this point and that’s why I want them in.”
Ninh Tran is the top public health official for Oxford County and Elgin County. In a statement emailed to The Free Press, Tran wrote “there is both a perceived need for, and support of” a supervised drug-use site in either Oxford or Elgin.
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Supervised drug-use sites in St. Thomas, Woodstock eyed
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Political opposition builds to Woodstock supervised drug-use site
London, 10 times Woodstock’s size, has had a supervised drug-use site for more than three years, Carepoint. Megan Van Boheemen of the Regional HIV/AIDS Connection that runs it is clear on the mission of such facilities.
“It’s great if people want to access treatment. It’s great if people want to stop using drugs,” she said. “Our goal is to keep people alive long enough so that when they get to that point, they’re alive to wait. We’re in the business of saving lives.”
The London facility has had 52,037 visits and staff have treated 593 overdoses without one death. Paramedics have been called 45 times. “So, when we look at cost implications, that’s significantly less than it would cost the community if these were overdoses in the community,” Van Boheemen said.
Mayor Acchione admits citizens aren’t the only ones in Woodstock who are hesitant – he is, too.
“I certainly have a lot of hesitancy. I’ve never kept that a secret,” he said, citing its not-yet-proposed location as one key factor. “(But) I haven’t decided one way or another.”
An online petition to stop the drug-use site had drawn more than 500 signatures as of Friday morning.
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