January 19, 2024 | The Toronto Star via UVic News
Just over six months has passed since 44-year-old Karolina Huebner-Marukat was killed outside of a safe consumption site in the Toronto neighborhood of Leslieville. The site – located in the South Riverdale Community Health Centre – is now holding town halls to inform the community of changes that have been made in reaction to her death.
Some Leslieville residents have argued for the site to close since the shooting. UVic’s Dr. Gillian Kolla, who was quoted in a recent Toronto Star article about the town halls, emphasizes that substance use will continue in the area whether the site shuts down or not. Dr. Kolla explains, that if the site does shut down, infinitely more harmful outcomes will arise for those who rely on it.
Dr. Kolla is a collaborating scientist at the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research. Her research focuses on how to make health and social services more accessible to people who use drugs. Three of Dr. Kolla’s publications in this area are freely available on the University of Victoria’s open access institutional repository, UVicSpace. The Office of Copyright and Scholarly Communications encourages you to read these articles to learn more from this important scientist.
