London to open pop-up supervised drug injection site

London will open its first 'overdose prevention site,' a bare-bones facility where people can use drugs under medical supervision.

The announcement follows more than a month of public consultations by local health officials, which is one of the hurdles the city is required to clear as it seeks approval for a full facility from federal health regulators.

• Health unit wants your opinion about supervised injection sites

Health Canada is being asked to approve a supervised consumption site in London, a facility that links drug users with a full spectrum of health services, as the city deals with a rash of drug overdoses and a rise in blood borne disease stemming from drug users sharing dirty needles.

"I see this as a response to an immediate crisis that needs to be implemented quickly," said themedical officer of health for the Middlesex-London Health Unit, Dr. Chris MackieTuesday.

"It's very much addressing a crisis with the urgent action that it needs," he said.

The Middlesex-London Health Unit said Tuesday that health officials will likely announce a location of the new pop-up facility in the coming weeks.

"We haven't got a permanent location or a temporary location at this point," Mackiesaid. "There are a few locations in the core area. They are the areas that we talked about in our supervised consumption consultations."

Those areas include downtown, Soho, Old East Village and the Hamilton Road area, where dirty needles have been found with the most frequency in the city.