Sanguen Health Centre has reopened their life-saving drug checking program, which aims to reduce overdoses in the community.
After receiving a federal exemption through Health Canada, Sanguen was able to begin operating the drug checking service at a new drop-in space at 130 Victoria St., as well as in Sanguen’s mobile community health van.
Despite the restrictions around offering safe consumption, Sanguen wanted to ensure there was a space to maintain connections and offer health care and support to individuals in the community experiencing homelessness and addiction.
The drug checking service was originally operated by Sanguen out of the Consumption and Treatment Site (CTS) in Kitchener.
The CTS was forced to close its doors on Mar. 31, 2025 due to the provincial government’s Community Care and Recovery Act (CCRA) which stated CTS sites could not operate within 200-metres of a school or daycare.
“Now that the CTS is gone, it’s especially important to allow people to make choices for themselves. Checking your drugs lets you know what’s in your drugs so that you can choose to either do that drug or not do that drug,” Leigh Wardlaw, drug checking lead at Sanguen, said.
“Nobody plans to do a drug and overdose,” Wardlaw said.
The drug testing machine is available for use on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and can tell what is in substances, as well as how much.
“One of the things that became really clear is that people were purchasing substances that they thought were something, and it turned out that they weren’t,” Violet Umanetz, manager of harm reduction and outreach at Sanguen, said.
While at the CTS, staff were able to provide immediate healthcare if a substance caused an adverse reaction.
“When the site closed, we realized that we were going to still need to provide that educational piece so people could make decisions to keep themselves safe,” Umanetz said.
The space, Umanetz says, offers a way to provide services lost through the CTS that pertain to supporting the community’s well being.
“Once we built those relationships [at the CTS] it was really hard to imagine having to let those go and not be able to be there for people the way that they deserve, “Umanetz said.
The casual drop-in space offers the community various supports such as drug checking, harm reduction, a chance to connect or just a spot to enjoy air conditioning.
“They can come in to do crafts or board games or play cards or again, just sit and relax,” Umanetz said.
Umanetz said the impact of the CTS closure on the community has been huge.
“People who use drugs are feeling lost right now. They’re feeling that they don’t matter, that their lives don’t matter,” she said.
Umanetz said there have been a number of community deaths and overdoses since the CTS has closed.
“It’s not just about the deaths, it’s also the traumas of responding to overdoses of waking up next to somebody who’s not breathing,” she said. “Those overdoses are so awful to be a part of and to witness.”
While the new drop in space is a start, Umanetz is hopeful the community continues to advocate and that more support spaces will open up in the future.
“We’re going to get back to all the things that we need in our community to keep everybody safe and and healthy and alive.
But it’s going to take a lot of work and a lot of advocacy from people to to keep it on the radar and keep things moving,” she said.
The print version of this article on page 5 of Vol. 13 Issue 10, has the headline, “Sanguen opens CTS drop-in site,” which has been changed here. The drop-in site is a community space with tools for drug-checking.
Leave a Reply