The agency hoping to run a Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) site in Cambridge explained its plan to the public at a meeting Tuesday night.
The AIDS Committee of Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo and Area (ACCKWA) is applying to the province to run the CTS site on Main Street in Galt.
As part of that application process, a session was held for people living and owning businesses nearby, with representatives from various health and harm reduction groups on hand.
Cambridge Memorial Hospital and paramedic say a CTS site should help reduce EMS calls and ER visits.
Public Health notes that Cambridge has the highest rate of suspect drug related deaths in the region.
A member of the CTS site in Guelph, which opened in 2018, says their facility has led to less needle debris around town.
"The fears that we had heard about having a CTS site is that this may lead to more drug use, increased drug dealing, increased criminal behavior, but that just did not happen," said Lindsey Sodtke, an addiction counsellor with Guelph Community Health Centre. "The site itself did not bring drugs to Guelph. Drugs were already here and the need in our community already existed here."
Panelists also answered questions that had been previously submitted by the public.
Once ACKWAA's application process is complete, it will be up the Ministry of Health to decide if it gets approved. There is no word yet on a timeline for the process.
