Boxes placed for needle disposal
Measure focused on safety, reducing risk of harm
You might spot them soon around the city of St. John’s: metal boxes, like oversized birdhouses.
Stickers will be on each mounted box, offering basic information and phone numbers — help in responding to a drug addiction.
They are drop boxes for used drug-injection needles.
Ten boxes have already been manufactured on request and provided to the capital city by College of the North Atlantic students in Burin and Port aux Basques. More are on the way, with the exact number and locations around St. John’s to be determined.
A list of locations or map will be made available online, plus a list provided to city community groups.
The boxes are being introduced through the work of the St. John’s Community Action Group on Fentanyl — a partnership including representation from the province’s Department of Health and Community Services, Eastern Health, various community outreach organizations and the city.
They were paid for through a $3,000 Health and Community Services grant, matched by the city, covering the cost of materials.
“The sharps kiosks that we’ve launched today are one part of a comprehensive community approach to building public awareness about drug use and overdose risk, and to creating safer communities for all,” Coun. Hope Jamieson said at a news conference Wednesday, focused on the reality of public drug injections and the goal of limiting the number of used needles left on the ground or in the garbage, where they can poke through.
Jamieson mentioned “kiosks,” and these are two, larger boxes, being more like old mailboxes, capable of swallowing both individual needles and small containers of needles (dropped into pop bottles or bleach bottles).
One kiosk — bright yellow and hard to miss — is at Quidi Vidi Lake, on the shore along The Boulevard and near the turnoff to East White Hills Road. The other, The Telegram was told, will be located at Tessier Place.
“St. John’s is a pilot area for this process and we’re hoping that other cities and towns across the province will take on this type of an approach and then make partnerships with the province, and then hopefully we’ll roll out these boxes right across the province,” said Virginia Waters-pleasantville MHA Bernard Davis, who was at the media event held in his district.
The smaller metal boxes will be placed throughout the city, wherever it is determined an accessible box for needle disposal could be of use, including in areas where the city has received multiple 311 service calls for the presence of used needles.
The small boxes will be emptied by city parks staff. Open the metal front and what’s inside is essentially the yellow container you would find in a hospital bathroom or some private buildings, including office buildings (conscious of the need for a safe disposal option for needles, as the containers are the same as those used for prescription-drug needles).
As for any suggestion that providing the boxes could encourage illegal drug use, or enable it in some way, Jane Henderson, executive director of the Boys and Girls Clubs of St. John’s and a part of the St. John’s Community Action Group on Fentanyl, said the group’s efforts are all about — wherever possible — reducing risks for individuals and the community.
“One of our community groups at this table is Choices For Youth and they have this really great definition of harm reduction that I would like to share today. And that is: in the absence of perfect choices, we help people choose the one that causes the least harm, and we do this so that we will have the ability to work with people again tomorrow,” Henderson said.
The Telegram contacted the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary and was told the force supports the decision to provide the boxes as a public safety measure.
The drop boxes are one project of the St. John’s action group. Last spring, shortly after the group was formed, a pilot program saw “pop-up tents” where naloxone kits and related information were distributed. That campaign was aimed at drug users, but also their friends, family members and other members of the public.