KAMLOOPS — They’re becoming a common sight in streets, alleys, and parks.
Needles provided through harm reduction programs are not always properly disposed of, and Interior Health is discouraging concerned citizens from taking matters into their own hands.
“The support from Interior Health is secondary to me,” said Dennis Giesbrecht, who helps run a needle buyback program in Kamloops.
“The community based support we’ve seen far outweighs anything Interior Health could have done.”
The needle buyback program pays users a nickel for each used needle that’s brought in.
Interior Health says it hasn’t implemented a buyback program of its own due to a number of factors, including the dangers involved with collecting and counting needles.
“We are very careful, and we also don’t actually physically touch the needles, we have the people that are dropping them off count them for us, and put them in the bin.”
Giesbrecht says the program is protecting the public from needles by getting them off the streets.
“Another concern with Interior Health is that new needles would be taken and exchanged for cash,” Giesbrecht said, “and I understand this concern, but this sort of highlights the need to track what they’re doing in terms of handing out.”
Interior Health says 99 per cent of needles distributed to communities last year were properly disposed of, and more work is being done to increase industrial sharps containers for easy disposal.
“Any step forward is obviously positive,” Giesbrecht said, “and I support that 100 per cent. If (users are) throwing (a needle) away and it’s not worth anything in their head, if they’re in the headspace that they’re not really worried about the rest of society, why would they walk across a park even to put the needle in the sharps container?”
The needle buyback program collects around a thousand needles a week.
