Every cigarette pack in Canada carries a health warning. The rooms where people smoke fentanyl carry none.
Health Canada licenses 26 supervised consumption sites, and British Columbia runs dozens more under a provincial order. Not one is required to post a warning about what's in the drugs, what they do, or where to get help. We're asking for one sentence in the licence.
Post a plain-language warning-and-help sign at the entrance and inside the consumption room, in English and French, naming what the drugs do, the local 24-hour help line, and the words "Ask staff about treatment today."
Why
Nothing requires it. Health Canada's published requirements for a site cover staffing, security, record-keeping and reporting. Not one line about warning the people inside.
Everyone else has to. Cigarette packs carry warnings on 75% of the front and back. Every cannabis package carries one. Every bar and liquor store in Ontario posts a pregnancy warning by law. Lottery tickets in Ontario carry a problem-gambling line. A fentanyl smoking room carries nothing.
The supply changed and nobody tells them. Toronto's drug checking service, February 2026: 85% of fentanyl samples contained medetomidine, an animal sedative, and 38% contained a benzo. Public health posts these alerts online. The room where people use the drugs posts nothing.
The harm is specific and documented. Benzos in the dope erase hours at a time. Fentanyl overdose survivors have been left unable to form new memories, a syndrome in the medical literature since 2017. Xylazine wounds end in amputations.
Help is the missing half. Sites hand out pipes, needles and naloxone for free, around the clock. A sign that says how to get into treatment, with a phone number, is nobody's job.
Three posters. Free to print.
One for each harm people in the room already see on themselves. Each poster names a health effect, a next step, and the 24-hour help line for your province or territory.
Letter size. Colour where you can; they still read in black and white. Free to print, share and adapt under CC BY 4.0. Help lines are the ones Health Canada lists for each province and territory, checked October 2, 2026. Nothing here is an official notice of any government.
Get one on a wall
Email Ottawa. One decision covers every site in Canada.
Every legal site runs on a federal exemption, and the federal Minister of Health sets its conditions. Send this to the minister, copy the exemptions office, and copy your own MP.
Subject: Require a warning-and-help sign at every supervised consumption site Dear Minister Michel, Every cigarette pack in Canada carries a health warning. The rooms where people smoke fentanyl carry none. Nothing in the published requirements for a supervised consumption site asks the site to warn the people inside about what's in the drugs, what they do, or where to get help. Please add one condition to every exemption issued under section 56.1 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act: a plain-language warning-and-help sign at the entrance and inside the consumption room, in both official languages, with the local 24-hour help line and the words "Ask staff about treatment today." It costs a site the price of a laminated sheet. It closes nothing. It gives people who use drugs the same information we give every smoker. Will you add this condition, and when? [Your name] [City, postal code]
Email your province.
Provinces fund, approve and in some cases regulate the sites. The contacts below follow the province you chose above (change it). The email fills in the right minister.
Contacts verified October 2, 2026 against official government pages. Ministers change. If an address bounces, use the contact page.
Ask the site near you to post it.
Find the sites on Health Canada's list, email the director, and attach a poster. If they say no, send us the reply. Every written refusal goes in the file we send to Ottawa.
Subject: Will you post this warning-and-help sign? Dear [Director], I'm attaching a warning-and-help sign for the entrance and the consumption room at [site name]. It tells people what's in the supply and what it does, and that staff can connect them to treatment today, with the 24-hour help line. Will you post it? If not, please tell me why in writing. [Your name]
Facts and where they come from
- Supervised consumption site exemptions and the Minister's power to set conditions: Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, s. 56.1; Health Canada, after you apply.
- Sites operating in Canada (26 as of September 15, 2026): Health Canada, status of applications.
- Cigarette warnings cover 75% of the package: Health Canada, health labels for cigarettes.
- Medetomidine in 85% and benzos in 38% of fentanyl samples: Toronto's Drug Checking Service, February 7 to 20, 2026. Medetomidine across Canada: CCENDU bulletin, June 2026.
- Local alerts: Region of Waterloo community drug alerts.
- Memory loss after fentanyl overdose: CMAJ case report, 2019; opioid-associated amnestic syndrome, longitudinal imaging.
- Xylazine wounds and amputation: CDC; Malayala et al., Cureus, 2022; wounds in people who smoke or snort: The Conversation, 2024.
- 24-hour help in Ontario: ConnexOntario, 1-866-531-2600.
Questions
What is Make Help Visible? A Canadian campaign asking Health Canada to require a warning-and-help sign at every supervised consumption site, and giving sites free posters they can put up today.
What exactly is the ask? One condition on every federal exemption: a plain-language sign at the entrance and inside the consumption room, in English and French, naming what the drugs do, the local 24-hour help line, and the words “Ask staff about treatment today.”
Does this close sites or oppose harm reduction? No. It changes nothing about what a site does except what is on the wall. The posters name a health effect and a next step. They don’t shame anyone and they don’t tell anyone to leave.
Why not just rely on naloxone? Naloxone is for after an overdose has started. The sign is for the hours before: what the drugs do, and where to get help to reduce or stop.
Who is behind it? Make Help Visible is promoted by Referee The Room, which trains frontline shelter and outreach staff. Spokesperson: Jason Comely, founder of Referee The Room, with six years of overnight frontline shelter work.
Can I print and use the posters? Yes. They are free under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Print them, post them, adapt them. Each one carries the 24-hour help line Health Canada lists for your province or territory.
Where do the help lines come from? Health Canada’s page “Get help with substance use,” checked October 2, 2026.