Pubdate: Wed, 16 Aug 2017 Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON) Copyright: 2017 Canoe Limited Partnership Contact: http://www.torontosun.com/letter-to-editor Website: http://torontosun.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457 Author: Shawn Jeffords Page: 6 HEALTH BOARD LIKE A DRUG CARTEL: MAMMOLITI Toronto's Board of Health or drug cartel? Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti asked that question in a tongue-in-cheek statement released Monday where he slammed the board for allowing a pop-up supervised injection site to operate in Moss Park over the weekend. Drug cartels coordinate use of narcotics, establish territory and "silence politicians," he said in a statement. "If you thought that those descriptions only apply to drug cartels, then you're in for a rude awakening," Mammoliti said. The veteran city councillor, who has been a vocal opponent of the city's move to open three supervised injection sites, says there will be consequences for allowing the pop-up site to exist. "Council is allowing this group to take over a park for an unauthorized injection site and soft-stepping around even more bizarre suggestions, like legalizing hardcore drugs such as heroin," he said. On Monday, Dr. Eileen de Villa, the city's chief medical officer of health, confirmed that the opening has been accelerated in response to the opioid overdose crisis. The move comes a little over a week after the city said it would speed up the development of the three planned sites from their original mid-fall scheduled opening. At that time, city staff were directed to open the sites as soon as possible. While the interim operation is not expected to be the same as the fully-built sites, it will be located at the public health's building downtown. Last summer, council gave the OK to safe injection sites operating at The Works, located at Victoria and Dundas Sts.; the Queen West-Central Toronto Community Health Centre in the Queen-Bathurst Sts. area; and South Riverdale Community Health Centre, Queen St. and Carlaw Ave. "There are lots of things that need to be taken care of," de Villa said of the arrangements needed to start the interim sites. "We want to make sure that we are providing these interim supervised injection services in a manner that's safe for the clients and, of course, for our staff." - --- MAP posted-by: Matt