There are many reasons to celebrate the expansion of the Digital Overdose Response System (DORS) into Airdrie.
In late November, the Alberta government announced DORS, which was previously piloted in Calgary and Edmonton, would be available for use in some of those cities' nearby communities, including Airdrie, Balzac, Cochrane, and Chestermere.
The app works by notifying an emergency response centre if a substance-user is no longer responding to a series of pre-set timers on the app. If the person does not respond to a phone call after they have ignored the timer going off, paramedics are dispatched and called into the location provided by the app user when they signed up for DORS.
The new tool will save lives, according to local harm reduction advocate Samantha Ginter. She told us how government statistics indicate the majority of overdose deaths in Alberta occur when a person is using substances alone at home. There is still a lot of stigma surrounding substance use, and many people prefer to hide those activities from their families and loved ones, putting them at heightened risk in the event of an overdose.
Ginter likened the DORS app to a "digital safe consumption site." Given the lack of physical safe consumption sites here, she said it's important to have tools like this and others on hand to keep substance users safe.
Many people claim safe consumption sites enable addiction, but our newsroom disagrees with that argument. Safe consumption sites are a much better alternative to the "just-say-no" attitude surrounding drug use that was espoused in previous generations. Besides, you rarely – if ever – hear the same argument applied to bars, breweries, or distilleries. But what are those institutions, if not safe consumption sites?
The reality is that substance use and addiction are in virtually every community, and it's not something that can or should be swept under the rug. Trying to preach drug abstinence hasn't worked in quelling overdose-caused deaths. Maybe apps like DORS will.
