City getting more money to deal with needle debris

PROVINCE DOUBLING GRANT MONEY

More money is coming to the Lethbridge to assist with needle debris cleanup as the City looks to address the opioid crisis on multiple fronts.

On Friday, Health Minister Sarah Hoffman held a teleconference to announce the province would double recent grant funding from $80,000 to $160,000 to support additional measures for implementing harm reduction in the city.

She also expressed support for the work being done through ARCHES.

“I want everyone to know I believe ARCHES has done really important work around saving lives and providing supervised consumption services and the needle exchange program,” she said.

At the same time, she acknowledged concerns in the community about needle debris and negative behaviour related to drug use.

“Anyone who is living with substance use deserves to live another day and make a decision that can lead to them having a safe life,” she said.

“But it’s important that anyone walking down the street feels safe, as well.”

Mayor Chris Spearman said it was important to get to the root causes of issues surrounding drug use in the city.

“It’s wonderful that the province wants to partner with us,” he said. “But what we have to do is look at what’s causing the issues.”

He noted a big part of dealing with the opioid crisis is missing in Lethbridge — opportunities for getting people off dependency.

“We lack all those services,” he said. “We need to work with the provincial government to provide those services to end the cycle of use that currently exists in the city.”

Spearman said the City will be looking at other communities with similar issues to see how they have been dealt with.

“People are going to be frustrated,” he said.

“I know they want answers and solutions tomorrow. We have to find ways of working with our business community, and we have to find ways to manage all the social issues in the community.”

Statistics provided by Spearman show that close to 700 individuals are using the SCS up to 10 times per day.

The site is on track for 15,000 uses for the month of July. At the same time, the monthly number of needles distributed by ARCHES has dropped by more than 20,000, with more than 5,000 being used by people outside Lethbridge.

Unrestricted access to clean needles is a World Health Organization best practice endorsed by Health Canada and Alberta Health.

Hoffman said it is vital to controlling rates of disease among drug users.

“I don’t want any used needles anywhere,” Hoffman said. “If we don’t give people clean needles, they are going to be recycling used needles and increasing risk to themselves and members of the community, as well,” she said.

“People can get needles at a variety of places. We just happen to be giving them to people we know have lifestyles where they are gong to be using them

frequently and wanting to reduce some of the risks to them.

“I need to keep using science and evidence to reduce the tragedies we’ve seen in Alberta with regard to the opioid crisis.

“One of the ways we can reduce some of that is to ensure we have clean supplies for those who are using. But I want to ensure everyone knows any concerns and issues around debris and public health and safety is taken very seriously.”