Littered needles put mission patrons' safety at risk

The Elgin Street Mission in Sudbury is facing some challenges with clients who are intravenous drug users.

Intravenous drug users aren't always using the needle exchange boxes supplied by the centre. They're shooting up and leaving their needles behind. And Renee Soullière, the director of the centre, said that is causing some trouble.

"The needles are left unsafely on the floors … around the mission," Soullière said. "Somebody that is innocent of ever having used needles can get picked and their life could be over."

At least one incident of somebody being pricked by a used needle has been reported, he said.

Problems with inappropriately discarded needles have also been reported in other areas of the city.

In February, the needle exchange program in Sudbury handed out 27,000 needles. A total of 19,000 were returned.

Sabotage suspected

There are needle exchange boxes on the walls of each washroom stall in the Elgin Street Mission, but "we find them in the garbage pail, sometimes behind the toilet, on top of the dryer, and any little crack they can stick them in," Soullière said.

The exhange boxes were installed after an expensive venture to clean needles out of the sewage system.

Sometimes people dispose their needles in way that is meant to sabotage others, he added.

"We've had one person actually stick a needle upside down in the drain and put a wet paper towel over top," Soullière said.

Len Frappier, co-ordinator of the needle exchange program, said the mission has little support for its needle exchange and needs more community partners.

"What I mean by community is city hall and other stakeholders,’ he said.

Frappier said the city won't pay for the needle exchange boxes — which can cost "thousands of dollars" to install, maintain and empty. About a hundred needles a week do make it into the mission's needle exchange boxes.

Back at the mission, Soullière's concern is more for his patrons.

"We have more families and children here," he said.  "We don't want anyone to be at risk here."