Pharmacy doing its part to keep needles off streets
Penticton pharmacist offers a nickel for each used syringe returned to her downtown shop
To help reduce the number of discarded drug needles in Penticton, a local pharmacy is offering five cents for each syringe returned to the shop — plus a free pancake breakfast on Saturdays.
Just one week into the new project, Sunrise Pharmacy has already collected more than 1,000 used needles, owner and pharmacist Joelle Mbamy said Tuesday.
Mbamy and her daughter, Donna Mbamy-Conci, said they wanted to do something to address the concern the community has with used needles in the downtown core.
“We too had been hearing a lot about needles being left on school grounds and on the streets. There are tourists here and young children playing. We always ask our clients to bring back their used needles, but that hasn’t always been the case,” said Mbamy.
“We went to a meeting recently where Interior Health was there, as were other groups, and we wanted to collaborate on solutions to this issue. This is our way of trying to take those needles off the streets,” said Mbamy-Conci.
“By asking them to return the needles for a fee, it makes them take ownership and empowers them,” she added.
During a visit to the shop on Tuesday afternoon, the Herald watched one woman return a sharps box containing 114 used needles, worth $5.70.
The free breakfast Sunrise recently started offering is in response to the lack of food being offered to the homeless on the weekends because the Soupateria is closed, added Mbamy.
“Since we opened in 2012, we’ve been concerned about the wellness of our community. We are concerned about the stigma of addiction and homelessness,” said Mbamy.
“We took on harm reduction, and clean needles are given out to users so they can be safer. We are also inclusive here. This will always be a safe place to come without judgment.”
Interior Health is supportive of Sunrise’s effort but believes the program needs some safety tweaks.
“We understand finding an improperly discarded needle can cause anxiety, and we appreciate those working to establish innovative approaches to address improperly discarded needles,” IH medical health officer Dr. Silvina Mema said in a statement.
“We do not recommend examining or counting individual needles due to the risk of being poked. Instead, we recommend estimating the number of needles and paying per container, or a similar approach, and monitoring for inappropriate use of the program.”
Other options for disposing of needles in the community include all Interior Health public health centres, mental health and substance use and primary care clinics, as well as all community agencies that distribute harm reduction supplies.
Interior Health is also working with the City of Penticton to create a central drop-off centre that can be used by the fire department, B.C. Ambulance Service and health departments to dispose of used needles.