NEEDLE-EXCHANGE PROGRAM STAYS WITH PUSH TO CLEAN UP DISCARDS

The city's medical officer of health smoothed the turbulent waters of
the needle-exchange program yesterday, convincing city councillors
the program should carry on as it has, but promising a big push to
get discarded needles off Ottawa's streets.

The needle-exchange program for drug addicts has become a highly
charged debate topic, with three councillors questioning the wisdom
of handing out drug equipment that becomes a public safety hazard.

In a meeting of the community and protective services committee
yesterday, two Ottawa residents brought three large, covered tubs of
needles into City Hall and presented them to the committee.

Chris and Lisa Grinham said they collected 1,327 discarded needles in
parks, schoolyards, sidewalks and yards in the Lowertown, ByWard
Market and Sandy Hill neighbourhoods over six weeks last year and
seven weeks this year.

City officials took the needles away for disposal.

The councillors had suggested that Ottawa return to a one-for-one
program for the handing out of needles to addicts, to reduce the
number of needles discarded on the streets.

But Dr. Isra Levy, the interim medical officer of health,
commissioned a staff report that said going with one-for-one
exchanges, rather than handing out the needles as requested, could
cause an additional nine to 21 new HIV infections each year in
Ottawa, representing an increase of $1.3 million to $3.1 million in
health-care costs.

Dr. Levy noted that no other cities in Ontario are going to
one-for-one programs and that virtually all of the scientific
literature in the field supports the distribution of needles as a
harm-reduction strategy.

He said cities with full needle-exchange programs without limits have
seen HIV infection rates go down.

The city is handing out more than 300,000 needles a year, and many of
those syringes are going to cocaine users who shoot up 20 or 30 times
a day, consuming huge numbers of them.