City targets hot spots with needle drop boxes

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This article was published 02/09/2020 (1947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Winnipeg has installed nine needle drop boxes at various locations, amid what some experts are calling a drug epidemic.

The containers are stationed at Parc Joseph Royal, Ernie O’Dowda Park, Mayfair Park East, Gerald James Lynch Park, Midtown Bridge, Maryland Bridge, William Whyte Park, St. John’s Park, and a park seating area on Spence Street. The receptacles cost about $1,850 in total; they were installed Aug. 5-7.

“The purpose of the needle drop boxes is to ensure that there are dedicated locations throughout the city for the proper and safe collection and disposal of needles and sharps on public property,” a city spokesperson wrote in an email Wednesday.

The city chose the locations by working with Street Connections and front-line staff to identify used-needle hot spots. The drop boxes are meant to be for individual users’ needles, not dispensaries for residential or commercial use.

For now, Winnipeg will hire a contractor to empty the containers.

“It’s a very proactive, forward-thinking undertaking,” said Marion Willis, founder and executive director of St. Boniface Street Links, which includes an outreach team and spends time picking up needles around the community.

The group doesn’t count how many needles it collects, but has noticed a dramatic increase recently, Willis said. With people’s attention fixated on the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s less focus on those struggling with addictions, she added.

“Without so much focus on the actual drug epidemic — sort of out of sight, out of mind — it absolutely has flourished,” Willis said.

She attributed the anecdotal increase to people feeling isolated and anxious, and having a difficult time accessing services. Willis said she’s seen drug usage in all types of neighbourhoods; her team treks through St. Boniface, Norwood and Windsor Park, among other areas.

“Any kind of effort that any level of government or any organization can take to assist… in providing those receptacles to dispose needles is a helpful undertaking,” she said.

Such boxes are also found in other Canadian cities, said Ryan Palmquist, executive assistant to Coun. Matt Allard (St. Boniface), in an email.

“Coun. Allard thinks this is an excellent initiative, and is pleased to have one such box at a problem location he’s personally familiar with in St. Boniface, where he and I have recovered needles before,” Palmquist wrote.

There is no plan to install more drop boxes at this time, the city said.

gabrielle.piche@freepress.mb.ca