Toronto allocates more than $33,000 to incorporate city branding on complimentary crack pipe and drug use kits.
Over the last three years, Toronto has spent over $33,000 to affix Toronto Public Health branding on drug use kits, including crack pipes, distributed to the city’s substance users, as revealed in documents acquired by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. In May, Anthony Furey, a former Toronto Sun columnist and mayoral candidate, shared pictures showcasing Toronto Public Health branding on pouches containing new crack pipes.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation submitted a request for access to information, aiming to obtain information on the expenses related to the crack pipe stickers and the quantity distributed at no cost through the city’s The Works program.
“If the public-health official is handing the equipment to the drug addict there’s absolutely no need to spend $34,000 on stickers to show that it’s from the City of Toronto, when that money could otherwise be spent on helping food banks or buying mitts and hats for children as the winter comes,” said Jay Goldberg, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation Ontario director.
Established in 1989 during the peak of the HIV epidemic, The Works is a harm-reduction facility that delivers addiction counseling, nursing services, opioid agonist treatment, supervised injection sites, drug purity testing, and supplies clean needles and smoking paraphernalia. The facility also incorporates its branding on the drug use kits it distributes
In response to the taxpayers federation, the city reported the distribution of 166,392 kits from 2020 to July 13, 2023. The branded stickers are featured on kits for crack smoking, crystal meth, injection, and foil for smoking heroin, fentanyl, and other substances.
According to the city, the cost of each sticker is approximately 20 cents. In total, the sticker program incurred expenses of $33,561.27 in just under three years. The breakdown of expenditures reveals $5,413.02 in 2020, $9,459.73 in 2021, and the highest annual cost in 2022 at $11,709.22. As of the current year, expenditures amount to $6,979.22 thus far.
Since 2014, The Works has been distributing approximately 1.3 million clean needles annually to individuals struggling with addiction. Recently, safe drug use kits have sparked controversy. Earlier this year, a school district in British Columbia had to issue an apology when it was discovered that a speaker had distributed “safe snorting” equipment to students, along with a booklet outlining which drugs could be safely snorted.
“You may be new to snorting drugs or have snorted drugs for many years. Either way, this resource has something for you,” included in the booklet’s introduction.
The Cowichan Valley School District stated that the materials were inadvertently left at one of its school sites after a harm-reduction and drug addiction presentation conducted by a third party. The district expressed that it did not view the kits as “school or age-appropriate” and announced a comprehensive investigation into its policies regarding third-party presentations.
