$200,000 SOUGHT FOR NEEDLE CLEANUP

New Drug-Use Patterns Cause City's Addicts To Use 'Enormous' Amount
Of Needles: Doctor

Another $200,000 a year is needed to do a better job of collecting
needles used by drug addicts in Ottawa, city officials say.

The number of needles carelessly discarded and then reported to the
city has gone from 813 in 2000 to 2,029 last year. Medical officer of
health Dr. David Salisbury says he agrees there is a need to do more
to "get needles off the street," though he says no one is known to
have contracted a disease from a discarded needle.

The City of Ottawa hands out about 300,000 needles a year to drug
addicts to reduce needle re-use and stem the spread of HIV and
hepatitis. Dr. Salisbury says handing out needles has helped decrease
the spread of HIV infection.

But Dr. Salisbury says changing patterns of drug use -- cocaine users
injecting 10 or 15 times a day, for instance -- mean "an enormous"
number of needles are being used among the estimated 3,000-to-5,000
addicts in the city.

To gather up the needles, the city proposes to expand its Needle
Hunter program by adding crews to patrol Vanier, Hintonburg,
Centretown and Byward Market-Lowertown. The city is getting bids for
the provision of these crews. As well, the city would add a public
health inspector, equipped with a vehicle, to respond quickly when
calls come into the city's 3-1-1 call centre.

Somerset Councillor Diane Holmes says citizens get upset when they
call the city to report needles, then find no one comes to pick them up.

"People are very worried about needles in parks and alleyways," she said.

The budget for needle pickup would go from $50,000 to $250,000 a
year. The city would ask the provincial government to pick up the
cost since the needle program is a public health program required by
the province.

Not everyone thinks that spending more money on the needle program is
the right answer. Lisa Grinham, who lives near the Byward Market and
is working with her husband, Chris, to improve the neighbourhood,
says it would be "throwing good money after bad." Ms. Grinham says
public health officials are enabling addiction by handing out
whatever drug equipment the addicts want "like candy," something she
finds difficult to explain to her teenaged son.

Ms. Grinham says she'd prefer to see the city adopt a policy of
handing out a needle for each used one that is turned in, which she
believes would drastically reduce the number of needles in the
streets. And she says the city and the provincial government have to
start getting serious about the real issue: getting addicts help to
get them off drugs.

Ms. Grinham says drug abuse and related crimes in neighbourhoods like
the King Edward Avenue area are driving people away.

"If we give up and let them win, the whole area is gone," said Ms.
Grinham. "You just can't let this turn into the east side of Vancouver."

Some city councillors, including Shad Qadri of Stittsville-Kanata
West, have serious misgivings about city officials handing out drug equipment.

Mr. Qadri says the city promotes the needle program as "an exchange,"
but, in fact, it's more like a "needle giveaway."

Mr. Qadri says that when a private citizen is collecting pails full
of needles on Ottawa's streets, it's time to get aggressive about
getting people treatment, rather than putting more public money into needles.

Mr. Qadri and councillors Bob Monette and Eli El-Chantiry are hoping
that a comprehensive report on the needle program in July will bring
some new approaches.