WARMINGTON: Drug use prompts Tim Hortons store to shut in-store dining

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OSHAWA – It seems drug addicts have been brewing up a pot full of trouble at this Tim Hortons franchise.

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Fentanyl, with a side order of crystal meth, was never on the menu at this Tim Hortons or any other. This, however, did not stop some regulars from ingesting those deadly drugs inside the restrooms or the seating area where families were just trying to enjoy a coffee or hot chocolate.

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It was becoming an unofficial narcotics delivery centre.

Not any more.

The Timmies at 415 Simcoe St. S. – just south of Olive Ave. – now has yellow tape inside, cordoning off the dining area from customers. It looks like a crime scene. It has been a crime scene.

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It’s the darkest part of of our country happening on the site of one of the businesses that is the pride of Canada. The fact that a Tim Hortons has decided it’s better to not let people dine in says all we need to know about the mess we are in.

The signs on the door make it very clear. The seating area with tables and chairs is now closed. For how long, no one knows for sure since Tim Hortons has not commented. But if you go to that location you will not be sitting down to enjoy your donut with family or friends.

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You can still order a double double at the front cash of this Tim Hortons. But you will have to consume your coffee in the parking lot with the very people strung out what they call ‘Tranq’ who caused this crisis on the first place.

“The staff don’t feel safe,” said one regular who has been impacted by the decision. “Neither do the customers.”

And, just like that, Tuesday came the decision to no longer allow customers to enjoy in-store dining. Although the drive-thru remains open as well as the front cash.

On Thursday, there were still plenty of people ordering their breakfast sandwiches, muffins or bagels, but they were eating their food in their cars, taking it to work or back home to enjoy.

“As a senior, I will miss going there, but I completely understand why they have to do this,” said one woman who frequents the Tim Hortons location. “Things were out of control.”

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Fellow senior Vic Wilson said some others are hopeful the dining room will open again eventually, but many are okay with just hanging out in their vehicles away from any potentially dangerous interactions.

There have been several violent incidents that put staff and customers at risk. The drug use stems from an old railway line behind the building and homeless people with addictions were using the Tim Hortons as an injection or ingestion site – a place where they could get out of the cold to shoot up or smoke up.

With Sun photographer Jack Boland, I visited the location, which MetroLinx has advertised having an interest in excavating the area for a Go Train station, and saw examples of what it’s been like there in recent months – especially since the extreme cold weather began this week.

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It looked like Zombieland.

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Oshawa Police officers deserve a medal for their life-saving interventions and interactions with serious drug users. There were several young people so high on hard drugs that they had that ostrich look where their heads are slumped forward in what is an out-of-reality stupor in temperatures that have dipped down to -10C.

It’s hard to watch.

Officers were at the ready with Narcan in case of an overdose and they were taking people to shelters, hospital or warming centres, trying to help them now that they can no longer bring their troubles inside the Tim Hortons.

One woman with two black eyes told me, “A guy gave me a wallop.” But she didn’t provide police with the name of an assailant.

However, it offers some insight into why customers and staff don’t want to deal with this insanity. Whoever did that to her could do it to a customer who happened to go into the washroom at the wrong time.

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Steps away another young woman was bouncing around, bobbing up and down as the drugs coursed through her body. She didn’t move that spot for two straight hours – so police checked on her repeatedly.

Both women are someone’s daughters.

It’s bloody hard to watch and you feel helpless as you do. If you give them money, you are aiding and abetting their death spiral. If you get to close, you could end up getting a whiff of the smoke they are so addicted to.

“There used to be two ambulances a day coming along here but now there are 15,” one regular Tim Hortons customer said.

Sometimes the people don’t wake up after they overdoses. It’s pure madness.

That little section of Oshawa, where you can see what looks like a garbage dump in the ravine below the Tim Hortons, looks like hell of earth – a frozen hell that serves up nothing but death.

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