Pubdate: Thu, 18 Jul 2002
Source: Daily Herald-Tribune (CN AB)
Copyright: 2002 Daily Herald -Tribune
Contact:  http://www.dailyheraldtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1840
Author: Debi Ruhl

WAR ON DIRTY NEEDLES

Following in the footsteps of successful programs in southern Alberta, new 
measures are being taken to keep dirty needles off Grande Prairie streets.

The Community Safe Streets committee officially unveiled the first bright 
yellow needle deposit box downtown Wednesday as part of an initiative to 
keep the streets clean and protect people from contracting diseases through 
contact with contaminated needles.

"We identified a need many months ago when an abundance of dirty needles 
were reported in parks, back alleys and even hotel rooms," said Brenda 
Moore, executive director of the HIV North Society. "This is an opportunity 
to dispose of them properly. It's not a huge problem yet but we want to be 
very proactive in this. It's important the needles aren't left around in 
playgrounds and on the streets where children can find them."

The receptacles will give injection drug users a place to safely dispose of 
needles, which are occasionally contaminated with disease agents like HIV 
and hepatitis. According to Health Canada statistics, 45 per cent of cases 
of HIV are contracted because of intravenous drug use.

"We've seen significant use of needles in the city. The year before last we 
had 12,000 needles in our exchange program and last year we had 25,000," 
Moore said. "We're not sure if the increase is due to more people injecting 
or because they're accessing our program more. Cocaine seems to be the drug 
of choice in Grande Prairie and some users will use 25 to 30 needles a day."

A similar program has been in place in Calgary for two years, with Edmonton 
implementing its own needle box plan back in March. The success of the 
Calgary initiative - more than 10,000 needles were deposited within the 
first year - prompted the HIV North Society, AADAC, Mistahia, the South 
Peace Social Planning Council, the RCMP and the Downtown Association to 
consider a similar arrangement for Grande Prairie.

"It's always great to look at others and learn lessons so we don't make the 
same mistakes. They have found that some locations work better than others 
and we're learning from them," Moore said.

"If this project prevents one child from picking up a needle or one person 
from being infected from a dirty needle, then it has been worthwhile," said 
Barry Robinson of the South Peace Social Planning Council.

"This is a very worthwhile community venture. We want to raise awareness of 
intravenous drug use in Grande Prairie," said Hilary Wynters, medical 
officer of health for the Mistahia Health Region.

"We spend a lot of time working on the preventative end of communicable 
diseases. We want to have more locations for these boxes, not just in the 
downtown area, and we hope to have them in place in time for our fall 
campaign."

Once the remaining nine needle receptacles are in place within the city 
limits, Wynters said the program may go on the road.

Please see NEEDLES, Page 4"It's about providing information and education 
on the safe disposal of needles," she said. "We'll see how it does. We want 
to spread information on intravenous drug use to other communities in the 
Peace Country through Mistahia and the Peace Health Region."

David Biltek, owner of Travelhandlers where the first box is located, said 
although he hasn't seen much evidence of drug use in the area, he was more 
than happy to donate the space.

"We offered this location because we felt it might be a good place to start 
it. It's convenient, it's well-lit and since it's private property we 
didn't have to worry about approval," he said.

"We would just as soon the needles were left in the box than in the parks." 
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom