Pubdate: Tue, 22 Apr 2014
Source: Telegram, The (CN NF)
Copyright: 2014 The Telegram
Contact:  http://www.thetelegram.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/303
Author: Barb Sweet

NEEDLE EXCHANGE DEMAND BEYOND CAPACITY

Numbers Up More Than 50 Per Cent

Demand for the Aids Committee of Newfoundland and Labrador's
needle-exchange program has increased considerably in the past two
years, says its executive director.

"We are looking at a 50-60 per cent increase in two years," Gerard
Yetman said.

"The program is not feasible as it is right now.

"The present program is not meeting the demand."

In 2011-12, the program distributed nearly 180,000 clean needles, but
numbers have surpassed twice that amount, in part because it's become
provincial.

Kits distributed through the program also contain other supplies, such
as alcohol swabs, cookers, sterile water and an instruction sheet for
safe injection. Last year, the AIDS committee got funding for a
needs-assessment report and will receive the document from the
consultant this week, with recommendations on what it will take to
sustain the program over the next few years and how government can
expand harm-reduction efforts and services to fight drug addiction.

Yetman attributes the increase in demand for the needle exchange to
greater awareness, particularly after a documentary - "The Needle and
the Damage Undone" by filmmaker Mark Hoffe which aired in 2012 - as
well as expansion of the needle exchange program to Conception Bay
North, Labrador and central Newfoundland. It was originally centred on
St. John's and Corner Brook.

As well, intravenous drug users trust the needle exchange program and
rely on the confidentiality of mobile outreach staff, Yetman said.

The committee also does pre-release outreach in prisons.

Yetman said the needle-exchange program is one part of efforts to
combat drug addiction that includes health care, education,
rehabilitation and the services that other non profit group offer.

"We are only a small part of that whole continuum," Yetman said,
adding the needs assessment project will help inform government how to
deliver services more effectively.

"This is not unlike what almost every other city across Canada has had
to go through," he said, adding the committee is doing a joint
presentation with Saint John, N.B., and Toronto at the Canadian
Association for HIV Research conference in May.

The misperception that needle exchange condones drug use remains, but
Yetman cautioned that intravenous drug users are not lying around an
alleyway, but often are people who function in society and cross all
economic classes.

Better education is needed in schools to target drug experimentation
with highly addictive substances youth can try once and get hooked on,
such as crack cocaine or prescription pills like OxyContin .

"Teenagers are invincible. Nothing can happen to them. The seriousness
is not there," Yetman said.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D