EXCHANGE SUITED TO INDUSTRIAL AREA

A needle exchange is a wonderful idea. Needle in, needle out. Sadly,
addicts use them, then throw them on the ground and in gardens and
doorways. They urinate, defecate and bleed on the city streets.

"Harm reduction?" Not for citizens who must walk through this as they
go to work. Nor for the kid who picks up a ball glove and gets stuck
by the needle embedded in it.

Elected officials and the Vancouver Island Health Authority must be
accountable to citizens, including the children of Victoria, with full
debate and public input on the location of the exchange. No school
administrator should be forced to deal with the spattered blood,
needles and excrement. It is the job of the administrators of this
city; don't count flowers, deal with this mess.

Let's protect the children and put the needle exchange in the
industrial area. That huge fenced space once occupied by the old
gasworks would be good. Move in some trailers, include a cook shack,
showers and washrooms and let the needle exchange people and the
addicts fly at it.

Geoff Kinnear,

Victoria