Regional councillors are considering putting safe consumption sites in hospitals instead of the previous plan to put them in city cores.
They want staff to consider Grand River Hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital and Cambridge Memorial Hospital.
The original plan called for two sites in downtown Cambridge and three in downtown Kitchener.
Cambridge, for its part, has an interim bylaw banning consumption sites in its three cores.
“All of those councillors have returned to the table, they have told me quite clearly they’re not tolerant of reducing or removing the interim control bylaw,” said Mayor Kathryn McGarry.
Opioid deaths are down in the region this year, but usage is still surging.
An opioid use update shows 52 per cent of overdoses now take place in people’s homes.
The November update indicates there have been a suspected 39 overdose deaths in 2018 up until Nov. 5. The year before, there were an estimated 86 overdose deaths.
Emergency room visits for opioid-related went from 149 in 2015 to 368 in 2017, a 149 per cent increase over that time.
