What Health Canada says about addiction
Health Canada, the clinical bodies and the researchers are in agreement here, and it’s worth knowing what they say before the argument starts.
The position of the federal health department
Health Canada’s page on stigma says:
Addiction is not a choice. It is a treatable medical condition yet many people affected by addiction face stigma.
The same page: “No matter the reason, no one chooses to become addicted.”
The clinical definition comes from the American Society of Addiction Medicine, and CAMH reproduces it word for word:
Addiction is a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and an individual’s life experiences.
The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction puts it plainly: “SUD is not a moral failing or a choice. Like cancer, it does not discriminate.”
Genetics and epigenetics account for between 40 and 60 percent of a person’s risk of addiction, according to the US National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Where Kingston stands
Local opioid deaths per year, from the last published series.
| When | Value |
|---|---|
| Before 2016 | ≤12 |
| 2020 | 42 |
at least 3.5 times higher in five years
Parent S, Buttemer S, Philpott J, Moore K. Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada, 2023
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24.5
Opioid-related deaths per 100,000 in Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington in 2022.
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16.8
The Ontario rate per 100,000 that same year.
Province-wide, opioid deaths have fallen from their 2021 peak of 2,484 to a preliminary 1,398 in 2025. We’re telling you that because it’s true and because you’ll hear it raised. Kingston’s rate still ran well above the provincial average the last time anyone measured it here, and the service is closing anyway.
What the consumption site has done
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58,444
overdoses reversed inside Canadian supervised consumption sites between January 2017 and May 2024.
Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction
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0
confirmed overdose deaths inside a supervised consumption site, in Canada or anywhere else.
Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction
1
person, out of all 1,065 studied, had their first-ever injection at the site.
Study of 1,065 Insite clients, Vancouver
Health Canada’s own count is the same story: roughly 49,000 overdoses and drug-related emergencies answered between 2017 and June 2023, with no deaths on site.
After Insite opened, public injecting, discarded syringes and injection-related litter all dropped by statistically significant margins.
What closure looks like
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4,149
Overdoses managed at Toronto’s 277 Victoria Street site over its operating life, with zero deaths. It closed March 31, 2025.
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550%
Rise in discarded needles in the area around it after closure. Discarded harm reduction equipment rose 588%.
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40%
Of former clients tracked overdosed within 100 metres of the closed site.
Follow what happens
The closure takes effect September 30 and the HART Hub follows the next day. What that transition looks like will only be knowable from records that don’t exist yet. When they do, and we can verify them, we’ll have something to say.