NEEDLES STILL LITTER STREETS

Needle drop boxes placed downtown by the city are not being well-used
by intravenous drug users, a south end residents says.

James Younger says he is one of a number of residents taking it upon
themselves to collect the tainted materials off the streets.

"I can usually find between one and 10 within an hour of walking
around," he said.

Younger said he has been cleaning up the streets as part of his New
Year's resolution. Many of the needles, he says, are within metres of
the drop boxes.

"With all these multiple agencies handing out needles, they may or
may not be doing as good of an intervention trying to get people to
dispose of their needles properly," he said. "I don't think disposing
of a needle is at the top of the [drug user's] priority list and they
don't want to carry the needles on them because then they've got drug
paraphernalia on them."

The four drop boxes - located on Haliburton Street, Cavan Street and
near the downtown A&W - are emptied and maintained by public works.

While some of the boxes tend to get high use, there has been limited
success in areas such as Haliburton Street, said John Horn, the
city's social planner.

"We did not expect it would resolve the entirety of the discarded
needle syndrome in the city any more than garbage cans tackle the
entirety of the litter in the downtown area," he said. "But if
there's one needle in the box, that's one that's not on the ground,
so every needle that lands in the box is a victory of sorts."

Many intravenous drug users are using needle exchange programs such
as are offered by Harris House Health Clinic and Tillicum Lelum,
which are reporting higher numbers of return than distribution, Horn said.

He noted that most pharmacies in Nanaimo sell needles at a low price,
which could account for some of the numbers of needles still being
discarded on the streets.

"There's so many sources and even if all the needle exchanges were
shut down, you could still go down to any pharmacy and buy them by
the box," he said. "And the stores won't take them back."

The city will conduct a review of the boxes in the next two months.
If a box is found to be underused, it will be moved to a different
location, Horn said.

The drop boxes represent one of many solutions the city is working on
to address Nanaimo's drug-using population, such as the Housing First
initiative.

"If they are standing on the street all day with no place to go, then
naturally they will discard their needle in a bush," Horn said. "By
housing these folks, we're hoping that these individuals can have a
place where they can dispose of their needles and inject safely."

Younger said he would like to see public consultation on the issue.

"I don't know what the solutions are, all I know is when people are
walking their dogs, they shouldn't have to be picking up needles or
walking over them."