KITCHENER - The region's first temporary consumption and treatment services site will open in less than two weeks.
On Thursday, it opened its doors for the public to get a look inside before it officially opens.
One of the first things you see is an oversized white board with notes from people who have lost their loved ones to drug overdose.
To access the treatment site, you have to climb a narrow staircase.
The inside may look small, but there is another space where people are encouraged to stay for at least 20 minutes after receiving drug treatment.
The CTS facility has four main goals, including saving lives by reducing the number of fatal drug overdoses, reducing diseases, connecting users with healthcare services and making a safer community by reducing public drug use.
"What we are hoping to achieve through the site is to provide that safe place, that security where people can come to a building, again be supervised, be watched, be monitored and to access those services," explains Grace Bermingham, manager of harm reduction with Public Health Region of Waterloo.
"So through that, we anticipate that we will see less public injecting, we will see less public drug use and overall ideally see less public disorder."
Before viewing the site, public health staff held an information session across the street along with a doctor from the Sanguen Health Centre and Waterloo Regional Police.
The CTS site will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily after it opens on Oct. 15.
