MOM HORRIFIED AT $1 PEN SHAPED LIKE HYPO NEEDLE

Item Could Make Kids Pick Up Real Thing

A Downtown Eastside mom says she is disgusted that dollar stores are
selling a pen made to look like a syringe.

Marilyn Mckee, 40, has seen the made-in-Taiwan pens for sale and
claims that they pose a severe safety hazard.

"I can just see a kid picking up a real needle after seeing these,"
said Mckee, who lives with her three kids just off East Hastings Street.

"Kids always write on their hands. So they may pick up a real needle
and possibly do the same thing . . . thinking it is a pen.

"There are so many different scenarios. It's opening up a can of
worms. It scares me."

Mckee's 19-year-old son pointed them out to her after seeing them at
Metrotown Mall. They also spotted them at a dollar store in East
Van's Kingsgate Mall.

"He has a really outrageous sense of humour and he was horrified that
these were on the shelves," she said of her son.

The syringe pen is filled with dark red liquid. Small letters on the
side read: "Say No To Drugs."

Neither of two pens purchased for $1 each by The Province worked.

After being told of Mckee's concerns, Naz Barandha, owner of Dollar
Land in Kingsgate Mall, said she would pull the last few pens from her shelf.

She bought 12 of the pens for her Halloween stock and never thought
there would be a problem with them. She intended them to be a novelty
item to go along with a costume.

"I never really thought about it. Now I see her point," said Barandha.

"I'm going to take them off the shelf. There's only a few and it's
only $1 each. It's not worth it to bring something like that into
people's minds."

The wholesaler Barandha said she bought the pens from denied having
sold them. It's not known how many stores are carrying the pens.