COUNCILLORS EYE NEEDLES

Want review of program for addicts to keep streets and parks clean of
infected gear

Three councillors want the city to clean up its needle exchange
program.

Concerned that needles used by drug addicts and provided by the city
are being tossed in city parks and dropped on streets and private
property, Orleans Coun. Bob Monette wants the city to review the
program it shares with the province.

He also wants to make sure drug addicts who use the program aren't
receiving more needles than the city's policy dictates, which is a
one-for-one deal.

"The program is not working and needs to be fixed," said Monette. "I
want a smart exchange."

Unlike the crack pipe program that city council voted to scrap last
summer, Monette and council colleagues Eli El-Chantiry and Shad Qadri
can't vote to end the city's involvement the program because it's
legislated by the province. However, they agree a review is necessary.

"It protects the drug addicts but it's forgetting about the general
population," he said.

Monette and El-Chantiry were bothered after the Sun reported late last
December that two young Ottawa girls were inadvertently stuck by a
dirty needle they found on the sidewalk outside their Ottawa home.

El-Chantiry also wants to make sure the city is only handing out one
needle for every needle received back from a user.

"We have to make sure the city is accountable and the needles don't
end up in somebody's back yard," he said.

El-Chantiry said he has been told some residents have found needles
stuck in trees placed so the needle portion is sticking out. Monette
has a photo of a needle that has been positioned in the ground with
the sharp end sticking up.

The city policy says that the program will provide users "with an
adequate amount of sterile needles to meet their requirements for safe
injecting" and "no client will be refused sterile needles on the basis
that they do not have any used needles to exchange."

The city doesn't enforce a one-to-one exchange but does encourage
clients to return used needles when they receive new ones and the
"number of needles given to clients without any for exchange will be
based on a professional assessment."

When city staff doesn't receive a used needle for a new one they
provide information on how to properly dispose needles and the impact
that improperly discarded needles have on neighbourhoods. The city
also makes biohazard containers available to users.

The concept of a one-for-one exchange doesn't work for Somerset Coun.
Diane Holmes because provinces have tried it and found it
ineffective.

'SIGNIFICANT NUMBER'

"We need to provide a significant number of needles," said Holmes, or
the result will be numerous drug users hanging around clinics every
two hours to get a new needle.

She does agree the city needs to do a better job at cleaning up
discarded needles but says more money from the province is required to
do it.