Around the perimeter of the Sheldon Chumir Health Centre, people pack together, sharing warmth. They smoke outside because inside, they can only inject. The pain of withdrawal and grief exclusion gathers people around the only site that offers hope — that someone cares that they survive.

A friend’s lips descend into forget-me-not blue. The scream of death rattles under the unforgiving glare of downtown. A patrolling outreach team arrives and pulls naloxone. Life returns. They offer water, open electrolyte packs and pour hot chocolate into foam cups.

Across the street, someone cries for help.

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What looks like chaos on the sidewalk is often a queue for care we’ve failed to offer.

Calgary opened its only supervised consumption site (SCS) in 2017 at the Sheldon Chumir Health Centre with cautious optimism. Soon, the numbers told a story —........

© Calgary Herald