Pubdate: Thu, 24 May 2007
Source: North Bay Nugget (CN ON)
Copyright: 2007 North Bay Nugget
Contact:  http://www.nugget.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2226
Author: Bryn Weese
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)

HEALTH UNIT COLLECTING MORE DIRTY NEEDLES

Program Highly Successful In 06

The North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit board of  directors 
learned Wednesday that heroin addicts are  finally getting the 
message and turning in their dirty  needles.

The health unit's decade-old needle exchange program,  which gives 
addicts clean needles and other drug  paraphernalia in exchange for 
dirty equipment, reported  an 89 per cent return rate on the needles 
it gave out  in 2006.

That figure, the highest recorded for the health unit,  is up 
substantially from previous years.

"(The increase) is a result of advocacy from one of our  board 
members requesting that we look at why, in  previous years, there had 
been a low return rate," said  medical officer of health Dr.

Catherine Whiting, noting the request led front-line  staffers to 
start encouraging drug users to return  their needles.

She said the higher rate of return means "it's less  likely that they 
(the needles) will be in places where  others could come to harm from 
exposure to the  needles."

The exchange program, which is mandated by the  province, has two 
components, Whiting said.

The first part of the program is to decrease the  transmission of 
diseases, particularly blood borne  infections, by providing clean 
needles for addicts, and  discouraging them from using dirty needles. 
The second  component is to have the dirty needles returned to the 
exchange site to be disposed of appropriately.

But board members Daryl Vaillancourt and Judy Koziol,  both city 
councillors, said they don't support the  program because they 
believe it encourages drug use.

Following the meeting, Whiting said the program isn't  only designed 
to provide clean needles and safely  dispose of dirty ones. It also 
provides counselling to  addicts and directs them to other services, 
including  the local methadone clinic, which helps heroine addicts 
kick the habit.

There are three needle exchange sites - at the health  unit's 
Commercial Street office, the AIDS Committee of  North Bay and Area 
and the Nipissing Detoxification  Centre.

The health unit is looking to expand the program to  offer needle 
exchanges in Parry Sound and elsewhere in  the district.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman