This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Tweak Easy, a grassroots organization in Peterborough that has been providing a safe space for substance users over the last 11 months, is raising funds in preparation for the upcoming winter.

“The reason we’re called Tweak Easy is because it’s supposed to be like a speakeasy. It’s a word-of-mouth thing,” founder Crystal Hebert told The Examiner. “The only people who know about where and when we’re going to be, are the folks who access the space and those volunteering.”

The group sets up a semi-enclosed tent once a week, in areas where substance use is common, to provide a safe space for users. Tweak Easy offers food, water and supplies to those experiencing homelessness, along with access to life-saving naloxone in the event of an overdose.

“We run with about three volunteers for each shift,” Hebert said. “It’s been a really beautiful thing, and it kind of came out of some of my other work. I’ve done a lot of community organizing, marches, rallies, blockades and vigils since I started doing outreach and overdose prevention work in 2018 or 2019.”

Hebert has been working with those experiencing homelessness in Peterborough for 10 years and is actively fighting to end the stigma associated with substance use. She believes words such as overdose put the blame on the individual, when the real problem is a contaminated drug supply.

“That stigma is literally killing people,” Hebert said.

Hebert made it clear that Tweak Easy does not provide drugs, but instead fills a necessary void when it comes to supervised injection sites, which cannot accommodate inhalation users. She mentioned a friend who died from contaminated drugs and would not have been saved by traditional safe injection sites.

“There was a lot of conversation around if the safe injection site was open, would she have been saved,” Hebert said. “And I said no immediately, because she was not a regular injection drug user. She was an inhalation user, and an injection site wouldn’t have saved her life.”

More than half of their user base is inhalation users, who can’t be protected because of the laws under the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, she said. These users subsequently run a higher risk of fatal overdoses, she explained.

“We went from seeing a trend of people being found with needles in their arms and hands, to lighters and pipes,” Hebert said. “People thought smoking was safer, and it’s not. You can still die, and you can still suffer the effects of the toxic supply.”

Even stimulants like crack and meth are being contaminated with benzodiazepines and carfentanil, Hebert explained. To date, 684 users have visited Tweak Easy, with 25 to 50 coming in each night of operation, which goes from sundown until 10 p.m. Despite this, the group is still operating in a legal grey area.

“We have to be very careful. We’re not out here intentionally trying to break the law. We’re not out here selling drugs. We’re not out here giving drugs away,” Hebert said.

She noted that city police officers have been friendly and respectful in the few interactions they’ve had, recognizing what the group is trying to do.

“It’s about putting your hand back for those coming behind you,” Hebert said. “When I was on the streets and in active addiction, this is definitely something I would have used.”

Hebert says similar groups are appearing in places like Toronto and Kingston. She’s also been asked to set up a Tweak Easy in Campbellford. She hopes that with additional donations and volunteers the group can expand and be available daily.

Tweak Easy is currently running a GoFundMe to raise funds for supplies and an ice fishing style tent for the winter months.

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com