By Kyle Rooks
Ottawa’s public health department is implementing a pilot project within the next few months to provide needles with a retractable point to help with the city’s drug problem.
According to the health department, the city-run Needlehunters program found over 1,650 used needles in Ottawa’s public spaces over the last three years.
The needle exchange program, which hands out 100,000 syringes each year to injection drug users throughout the city, estimates that 2,000 syringes are not returned to the exchange every year.
The city spends $40,000 annually on the program to clean up used needles, in direct response to the danger they pose to public health.
In 2000, used needles in Ottawa punctured nine sanitation workers and two children.
Neighborhood Alert, a community services group based in the western portion of Somerset ward, has been lobbying for the use of the retractable needles for the past few years.
Angelo Filoso, chairperson for Neighborhood Alert, says Somerset ward is among the most popular areas in the city for needle use.
“I think it’s a positive step forward,” says Filoso. “I think they should go for it, do the pilot test and
really implement it.”
By retracting automatically into the plunger of the syringe after an injection, the needle would not be exposed and therefore eliminate the risk of accidental needle-stick injuries in the community. It would also limit the spread of HIV and other communicable diseases caused by needle sharing.
Dr. Geoff Dunkley, associate medical officer at the health department, supports the pilot project but warns that a lot of drug users don’t use the needle exchange.
The health department estimates the 700 people who use the needle exchange represent about only one-quarter of the 2,800 injection drug users in the city.
The biggest question mark for supporters and skeptics alike is that the needles have never before been used outside of a medical setting. Just how the would-be users handle the change is anybody’s guess.
Dunkley says the transition to personal use would require some time because users need to be educated. Education is something the pilot project would have to evaluate.
“It can’t be done in a rush because it is changing people’s habits so it does take a little time,” he says.
“People don’t necessarily like to change.”
David Gibson, interim executive director at the Somerset West Community Health Centre on Eccles St., says the jury is still out as to whether the users will like the new product or not.
Gibson likes the idea that the syringe can reduce the risk of needle prick injury, but would rather see the money spent at the source of the problem, treating the addicts.
“From the street perspective we’ve heard mixed reviews,” he says.
“We do know that some injection users don’t like it because they don’t have the ability to aim as well.”
According to Dunkley, the new retractable needles cost about 80 cents each, considerably more than the 11-cent needles currently used by the needle exchange.
The city already spends $250,000 a year on the exchange program, as well as an additional $40,000 on cleaning up discarded needles.
“We’re not talking about big money here,” says community activist Filoso.
“For nickels and dimes you’re going to prevent HIV and different types of diseases. I don’t see a downside.”