The historic core of Cobourg, Ont., brims with small-town charm. There are stately buildings, quaint shops and old-fashioned iron lampposts decorated with hanging flower baskets. The local business authority even coined a hashtag, “#8BlocksofAwesome.”

But on Friday nights, just steps off the postcard main street, another side of life comes into view. Volunteers are setting up camp chairs and folding tables in an alleyway and laying out supplies, including alcohol swabs, plastic pipes and naloxone kits to be used in case of overdoses. All for an unsanctioned, pop-up safe site for local drug users, specifically geared to people who inhale rather than inject.

“It just seemed that there was more and more need, and more and more people dying,” said Ashley Smoke, one of the organizers. “There’s just so many people that are struggling and no one to help.”

Cobourg, home to 20,000 on the shore of Lake Ontario east of Toronto, has had a dozen fatal overdoses over the past 18 months. The nearest official safe consumption site is in Peterborough, almost 60 kilometres away. And like all government-funded harm reduction facilities in Ontario — and most of the rest of the country — it doesn’t permit drug smoking, just injection, oral and nasal use.

Smoke said the cost of not having supervised spaces for those who inhale drugs can be seen in Canada’s near-record overdose numbers.

“The consequences have been death. A lot of people have lost their lives. There’s just so much loss and grief,” they said.

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CBC News
July 13, 2023