Residents raise concerns about discarded needles, public health workers say harm reduction programs part of solution
As harm reduction programs grow across the country, providing clean needles to drug users, residents in some communities are calling on local governments to do more to clean up public spaces where they say discarded syringes are posing a risk.
Volunteers in various cities have taken to cleaning up parks and laneways where the drug paraphernalia has been found, with some suggesting needle exchange efforts are contributing to the issue. But public health workers and experts say such programs are in fact part of the solution.
In Moncton, N.B., and Brantford, Ont., volunteers have been going out with rubber gloves and garbage bags to pick up the drug paraphernalia, while in Cambridge, Ont., a handful of residents have taken to social media recently, posting photos of needles found in their neighbourhoods in an effort to call attention to what they say is a growing problem.
“We wanted to know where they were, what was going on,” said Mary Jane Sherman, co-founder of the Facebook group A Cleaner Cambridge. “Volunteers started coming forward to do cleanups. Everyone was just so angry about it … This is not a safe environment for our kids to grow up in.”