Safe Injection Site Near Toronto School Offers Chocolate Bars for Used Needles

A poster on the door of Toronto's South Riverdale Community Health Centre, which contains a safe injection site, is seen advertising chocolate in exchange for used needles on Aug . 13, 2023. Courtesy of Ginny Roth

While walking to a local playground with her young son on Aug. 13, Ginny Roth passed by a controversial drug consumption site in the Leslieville neighbourhood of Toronto. Posted on the door was an ad offering chocolate bars in exchange for used needles.

“If you live in Leslieville and you’re concerned about your kids picking up needles that surround the drug consumption site, you don’t have to worry. In fact, if your kids collect enough they can trade them in for chocolate,” Ms. Roth tweeted along with an image of the poster.

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre retweeted Ms. Roth’s photo on Aug. 14, saying, “This is an actual sign from a drug consumption site in Toronto. What is happening in Canada?”

The site, part of the South Riverdale Community Health Centre (SRCHC), is in close proximity to multiple elementary schools and childcare centres, Roth noted in an email to The Epoch Times. One of them, Morse Street Junior Public School, is just around the corner.

Safety around the SRCHC has been a topic of community discussion since the site opened in 2017, but especially following the death of 44-year-old Karolina Huebner-Makurat on July 7. She was killed by a stray bullet from a shootout near the site.

Toronto police crime statistics showed an increase of about 18 percent in assaults in the past year in the area of South Riverdale, of which Leslieville is a part.

Although investigators have not directly linked the shootout that killed Ms. Huebner-Makurat with the SRCHC, the centre has said it will post staff outside the facility and take other actions to increase community safety.

“We join others in being deeply troubled by this level of violence in our community. This terrible incident took place near our facility and has affected the whole community,” it said in a statement.

“To address those impacts and emerging needs, our team is committed to accelerating community safety activities, many of which were underway before this tragic event occurred.”

SRCHC did not reply to an Epoch Times request for comment on the poster offering chocolate for needles as of publication time. Roth said when she walked by the site on Aug. 14, the poster had been removed.

It poster had stated, “Got Sharps? Want Chocolate? For every full sharps container you return to COUNTERfit, we'll give you a chocolate bar.”

COUNTERfit is the name of the health centre’s harm reduction program. It was developed by Raffi Balian who died of an overdose the same year it was founded. Within the harm reduction program is the supervised consumption site, named keepSIX.

The Leslieville Harm Reduction Coalition, which advocates for the centre’s programs including keepSIX, says it helps prevent some overdoses and connect people with SRCHC’s wraparound services. “The services provided by the South Riverdale Community Health Centre are more needed than ever,” it said in a petition July 31 in response to criticism against the centre.

Ashley Kea, area resident, says her child once found a baggie with a “pink rock” in it. The rock was fentanyl. Kea told City News in July that children in the area are exposed to drugs in many ways.

“Our kids have all seen people doing drugs. We’ve seen drug deals happen. And basically, it’s just a criminal activity uptick that’s been going on.”

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.