Consumption site having positive effect

Site should increase safety downtown, council told

One benefit of the City of Lethbridge’s new supervised consumption site could be an increase in safety and reduction of hazardous debris in the downtown core, city council heard on Monday.

During a Heart of Our City Committee 2017 annual report at council’s regular meeting, Coun. Joe Mauro asked about strategies being used to deal with the issue of drug use in the downtown core.

He said last summer, when speaking with a local high school student involved in the Summer Ambassador Program, he had learned that the number of needles being found by cleanup crews had drastically increased in the past two years.

The student had told him in 2016 he had found a single needle, while this past summer he had been finding upwards of 10 per day.

“I’m assuming this summer it’s going to be even worse,” Mauro said. “Hopefully not, but the way things are going, it seems like this crisis has exploded. To me, that’s clearly not safe and inviting for anyone to come downtown.”

George Kuhl, the City’s Planning Initiatives Manager, said in regards to dealing with drug debris and issues related to drug use in the downtown core, it is hoped the City’s new supervised consumption site will reduce those issues.

“One of the side benefits of that program is that the drug debris should be concentrated (at the consumption site),” he said, “So I think we should see a reduction in the downtown and in other parts of the city in terms of where that paraphernalia might accumulate.”

The City of Lethbridge provides information on what to do in the case of finding a discarded needle with the goal of reducing risk and preventing injury to anyone who might encounter one, raise public awareness about the issue, reduce the number of discarded needles in public areas, provide safe options for disposal, and empower the community to take safe action in dealing with discarded needles.

The City asks anyone who finds a needle to always treat it as though it has been contaminated (used), and to call the ARCHES Needle Pickup Hotline at 403-332-0722.

For more information, visit the City of Lethbridge website under “Waste and Recycling.”

Herald photo by Tijana Martin @TMartinHerald A Lethbridge Police Service vehicle is parked downtown along the 100 block of 5 Street South on Tuesday. The amount of drug use downtown was a topic of discussion at Lethbridge City Council during an annual update from the Heart of Our City Committee...