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A new study out of McGill University is looking into claims that overdose prevention sites negatively impact the community.
Researchers analyzed crime reports over 10 years near overdose prevention sites and supervised consumption sites in Toronto.
They found that crime levels remained stable or declined in those neighbourhoods after the sites opened.
“For most of the outcomes we looked at, effectively there was no change over time, or if there was, there were positive improvements reported month on month once the sites had been implemented,” said Dimitra Panagiotoglou, an associate professor at McGill University.
Although crime reports in Toronto were analyzed, Panagiotoglou believes the findings could be generalized to other areas across Canada.
Researchers found reports either declined or stayed the same for crimes like assault, robbery and theft over $5,000. Only one type of crime went up when the sites opened.
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“The exception being break and enters, where there seems to be an increase immediately after implementation that also appeared to correct over time,” said Panagiotoglou.
Researchers say the controversy surrounding these sites is holding back progress.
“There’s a hunger to understand this because when there is this tension about something like this, because it is a controversial kind of intervention in ways, that you know, a new improvement in cancer care just doesn’t get people nearly as concerned,” said Panagiotoglou.
Currently, there are five in Alberta, two of which are in Edmonton at the George Spady Centre and Radius Community Health, formerly known as the Boyle McCauley Health Centre.
There was a supervised consumption site at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, but the province shut it down in December 2025.
Addiction specialist Dr. Monty Ghosh hopes this study can change how people view the supervised sites.
“Supervised consumption sites do work. They do save lives. We can work with the community to make everybody feel safe as well. I think that’s what we really need to focus on,” said Ghosh.
“Just because there’s this perceived sense of increase in crime, doesn’t mean that these sites need to be shut down. It just means that we need to sort of address these perceived increases in crime, talk to the community, and work with the community.”
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