By Chad Klassen

“We’re not doing enough”: Interior Health says more work ahead on needle clean-up

Aug 14, 2018 | 5:49 PM

KAMLOOPS — Interior Health was on the hot seat at City Council on Tuesday, fielding difficult questions from mayor and council about needles, the problems and dangers they’ve caused to the public at large.

“My email, my phone lit up last summer around this time of year. It was amazing and it was [needles in] public parks, public beaches, it was certain areas of town by the consumption sites. I think it’s happening again this summer,” said councillor Arjun Singh, who was the deputy mayor last summer. 

Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Trevor Corneil outlined during a presentation to council that 257,000 needles are distributed in Kamloops region every year, partly through the mobile consumption site that is set up on either side of the city.

Council reiterated the stories they’ve heard from concerned citizens about the increase in the number of needles since the introduction of the motorhome-style unit in June 2017. 

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“I’ve had emails from people that have had children that are walking on the beach and they actually have pricked themselves on a sharp,” said councillor Donovan Cavers. “It is a risk to the community and the perception might be a little bit over what the actual reality is, but we want people in our community to be able to go to the beach or go to the park and not just be safe but feel safe.”

Dr. Corneil acknowledges that any needle left in a public space is one too many, but he says Interior Health is still working with its community partners to come up with a concrete plan to clean up the sharps. 

“If there are needles lying down in parks, streets or the beach, we’re not doing enough,” said Dr. Corneil. “It’s like waste. We have to be more. We are doing as much as we can, but we do need to have a multi-stakeholder approach and a solution and those discussions are underway.”

One of the solutions has been a needle buyback program that was started by council candidates Caroline King and Dennis Geisbrecht. On Tuesday, Interior Health was questioned about its stance on needle buyback programs, including the one operating in Kamloops that has collected nearly 8,000 sharps from the streets. IHA says the buyback programs are not the most ideal use of resources in cleaning up the needle problem. 

“I think needle buyback programs are often done in the best interest of the community, but the negative impacts aren’t understood,” noted Dr. Corneil. “The outcome is actually not the number of needles collected. The outcome is really decreasing opiate use disorder and the risk of overdose.”

Dr. Corneil feels the consumption site has been a success. In more than a year, Interior Health says 22 overdoses have been reversed on site and seen no deaths under its watch. IHA even brought up the idea of expanding the services of the consumption site to different parts of the city. 

Councillors like Arjun Singh expressed concern about the stigma getting worse with the needle controversy. He said council at this point would be in tough to support more consumption sites until the current sharps are cleaned up.