South Side Park: Little Boy Pierce By Discarded Needle
A woman from Lethbridge argues that not enough is being done to prevent drug residue from littering public spaces.
Janessa Fyfe told MyLethbridgeNow.com it is frustrated needles are set aside, where the user decides just to be a danger to innocent children.
She expresses her concerns after her six-year-old son was stabbed by a syringe while playing at Sequoia Park on the south side last month. She says he was in the Park with his Kindergarten provider and was stung by a needle when he moved a pile of debris to follow a spider.
ARCHES CEO Stacey Bourque says it’s devastating to hear the news: “most of us here are also parents of young children, so no one ever wants to hear anything like this.”
However, she says arcs as an organization “cannot control human behavior in the community” and they do their best to pick up the needles, ensure that the distributed needles are returned and reduce the distribution rates.
Bourque says that for much of last year, needle return rates have exceeded distribution rates, meaning that users receive syringes from a number of locations other than the damage reduction offering distribution program that has been in operation since 2001.
It also says that since the opening of the monitored Consumer site, needle output rates have fallen by 70% and return rates have increased by 83%.
Fyfe says she took her son for blood tests and the first of the three Hepatitis vaccines he needs to get, and says that all you can do now is wait to see if anything develops.
She says it is an extremely stressful situation for her family.