Pubdate: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON) Copyright: 2008 The Ottawa Citizen Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326 Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n410/a01.html Author: Frank Calamatas STOP FREE NEEDLES Re: We need more bins for needles, April 20. Letter writer Steven Scott might believe that stopping the handout of free needles will not solve our needle problem. I have doubts that his solution of creating more needle bins will help either. I actually saw a user leave all his paraphernalia behind, including his used needle, on Rideau Street which is lined with garbage bins from King Edward Avenue to the Rideau Centre. I saw another street person throw his water bottle on the street not more than five feet from a garbage bin (I know he is a street person, because he admitted that to me when I confronted him). If drug addicts are "too lazy" in Mr. Scott's words to use the trash bins already lining the street, what makes him believe that they would use needle bins? The knowledge among the street people all over the country that Ottawa is distributing free needles is enough of an incentive to bring them to the city. This could be why we have an estimated 5,000 drug users in the city, why people like Chris and Lisa Grinham are gathering literally hundreds of used needles, and why advocates of the program are now asking the city to increase funding to $250,000 to pick them up (with luck, the city will get the province to cover the added cost, because the city can no longer afford to provide even the basic services, such as clearing snow from its streets). If word got out that Ottawa stopped handing out free needles, it could remove the incentive, and the impact of such an action, although not stopping the needle abuse entirely, could effectively reduce the problem to a more manageable level. It would be at least a step in the right direction for a change. One thing that should be obvious to anyone is that you're not going to solve the problem by handing out even more needles. Frank Calamatas, Ottawa - --- MAP posted-by: Derek