ACTION PROMISED ON NEEDLE DUMP

Marcel Dagenais's shoe crushed a syringe casing while the smell of
urine and body odour wafted around him.

"There's all these paths around the bush here, and here's where the
needles start," he said.

A few days ago, Dagenais was taking his dogs for a walk and decided
to venture into a wooded section near the 100 block of 18th Street West.

He was expecting a few needles and casings. Instead he found a
massive amount of needles, not to mention a makeshift bed, mouthwash
bottles and hairspray containers.

"The number of needles and the Listerine bottles that were in there,
it was just astounding," said the former Army Cadet officer.

Upon his discovery of the booze and needles, he called the area's
city councillor, Greg Dionne, and he showed Dionne exactly what was
happening in the small wooded area on Thursday.

Dionne was previously unaware of the area being a drug hub.

"That's the worst I've seen it," said Dionne. "The smell of urine
was just shocking."

Dionne and Dagenais weaved through a few different paths in the area
and noticed tire tracks, likely from vehicles driving directly into
the area, speculated Dagenais.

"Out of sight, out of mind," he said.

Dionne further speculated that there might be other "abuses"
happening in the area aside from drug use.

He said he called the city's parks and recreation department
immediately and promised the area - especially the needles and
casings totalling more than 100 - would be cleaned up and blocked
off as soon as possible.

The Ward 2 councillor went on, claiming the city had other wooded
patches similar to this one and they should be investigated as well.

Dagenais noted that many residents in the city had a drug problem
and the general population shouldn't become complacent to it.

"We've got a problem here in this city with the drug use and we see
it all over the place," he said.

Cleaning up the wooded section off 18th Street wouldn't solve all
the problems, but could solve a few, according to Dagenais.

"We've got children growing up in these neighbourhoods and I don't
want to see them into this stuff any more than anyone else does," he
said. "You open up this area so it's visible through and through and
you don't get people hanging out in places like this."

Dionne agreed.

"One thing I'll say about the users and the abusers is they know
when the heat's around and they don't want to be around where the
heat is," he said.

Staff Sgt. Bill Chow said police were now aware of the spot and
would definitely crack down on it.