Parents speak out after kids find drug paraphernalia, used needles in Halifax

Halifax-area parents are voicing concerns, saying children person been uncovering supplier paraphernalia and that, successful 1 case, a kid was pricked by a discarded needle.

Five months ago, Emily Medford wouldn’t person batted an oculus astatine her seven-year-old boy playing successful a heap of leaves. That’s each changed aft he was pricked by a needle astatine a autobus extremity connected Gottingen Street successful nan city’s northbound end.

“You’re frightened because you don’t know, was nan personification clean? What benignant of narcotics was it? And you’re not thinking, ‘Oh my god, I request to container up this needle and return it to nan hospital,'” she said.

“It was conscionable drawback your kid and let’s go.”

Across nan harbour successful Dartmouth’s Highfield Park neighbourhood, residents opportunity they’re utilized to seeing supplier paraphernalia scattered connected nan streets, particularly astatine autobus stops.

“My two-year-old picks up everything, truthful he’s perpetually picking worldly up disconnected nan ground,” area resient Karissa Duffy said. “Maybe location should beryllium a sharps instrumentality astatine each autobus stop. Maybe location should beryllium 1 extracurricular of each flat building.”

Medford told Global News she agrees pinch nan thought of supervised depletion sites and believes specified sites could thief pinch nan situation.

Duffy isn’t convinced.

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“We should beryllium moving towards much detox centres, and not voluntary. Drugs return complete everything. The addiction takes complete that willingness to spell get help,” she said. “We person group who person nary shelter and person nary food, truthful we’re going to spot much addictions because there’s much group who person nothing.”

Some clinics successful Nova Scotia — including Highfield Park’s Open Door Clinic — connection low-threshold opioid-assisted curen arsenic a intends of harm reduction. Program participants person prescriptions and tin prime them up astatine their section pharmacy.

“People pinch addictive disorders ne'er take for that to beryllium their life,” said Dr. David Saunders, an addiction expert astatine nan clinic. “I judge that group are calved genetically predisposed to addiction and that societal factors and traumas tin lend to that.”

Saunders said though nan number of group struggling pinch addiction hasn’t increased, nan usage of opioids has.

“Eight years ago, doing this work, it would beryllium different to person had group nether 20,” he said. “Now it’s accustomed for location to beryllium an expanding number of group successful precocious adolescence who person go opioid addicted.”

— pinch a record from Global News’ Rebecca Lau