Drugs surpass car crashes as city's No. 1 killer, health unit suspects

London's top health official says the city'sdrug crisis is growing.

Car crashes used to be the number onekiller of those between ages 15 and 50, but that's changed, suspects ChrisMackie, medical officer of health for the Middlesex-London Health Unit.

There's no requirement for overdose deaths to be reported to public health officials, so there are no firm numbers.

However, based on anecdotal evidence, more people between 15 and 50are dying from drugs than ever before, Mackie said.

"It's probably thenumber one killer, if you add up drug overdose deaths, (blood infection deaths), HIV and Hepatitis C deaths," he said.

"London has multiple, overlapping drug related problems and they require a range of response, so it's not that there's a silver bullet."

Prevention, treatment, enforcement and harm reduction all have to play a role, said Mackie.

Supervised injection services

Londoners will finally have their say on supervised injection services for the city's drug users next month.

Middlesex-LondonHealth Unit officials originally wanted public consultations in Septemberand October, with a report prepared by the end of November.

• READ: London supervised injection services feasibility study

That timeline has been pushed backwith public consultations beginning in early November, saidMackie.

The health unithired local consultant MariaSanchez-Keane, who runs the Centre for Organizational Effectiveness, to lead the public input sessions andwrite the final report.

"She's done excellent work with public consultation. We're really happy that's who has been hired," saidMackie.

Sanchez-Keaneconsulted with London's street-level sex workers and reported about their needs to city and health officials, prompting the London Street Level Women at Risk housing program.

Growing drug problem

London's HIV and Hepatitis C rates are growing faster than anywhere else in Ontario, as are the city's rates for two other types of injection-related infections.

Last summer, the health unit declared injection drug use as a public health emergency. The city hands out 2.5 million needles to drug users every year, a number second only to Vancouver when it comes to publicly-funded needle use.

• 'Just a safe place to go would be better'
• What you need to know about London's bid for supervised injections sites

The city has already done a supervised injection feasibility study,speaking to injection drug users who said they would welcome supervised facilities where they can use drugs.

Terminology change

The health unit's public consultations will include at least four town hall style meetings in different parts of the city, including downtown and east London, where most injection drug users have said they frequent.

The consultations will also include an online survey and up to 10 focus groups with businesses, residents, local agencies and people who use drugs.

The health unit has started referring to supervised injection services as 'supervised consumption facilities,' because drugs taken there could be injected, smoked, snorted, or otherwise ingested. The health unit is also considering the possibility of making the sites mobile, moving from place to place as demand dictates.