NEEDLE EXCHANGE PROJECT SEEKS HOST

The health unit official trying to get a needle exchange program started in this area says she's unsure when it will begin because she can't find a pharmacist to deliver it.

Jane Futcher, director of clinical services for the Leeds, Grenville, and Lanark District Health Unit, said a task force set up to implement a program will continue with public education efforts in order to convince a pharmacy and a community to host the pilot project.

"I've gone beyond predicting when it will start," a frank Futcher said Wednesday.

Needle exchanges, which are at work across the province and country, aim to keep addicts from sharing needles and with them the hepatitis B and C viruses and HIV.

Programs not only hope to protect addicts from chronic diseases associated with intravenous drug use, but want to keep them in touch with local health officials to offer aid when they want to quit.  Needle exchanges also ensure that dirty needles are properly discarded so bystanders aren't accidentally pricked.

The Leeds, Grenville and Lanark Harm Reduction Task Force, including public health nurses, addictions workers and police, hopes to run the pilot project, and once the bugs are worked out expand that project to other parts of the counties.

The hope is to use area pharmacies whose staff would get training to dispense and collect needles.  A study found many drug stores are already disposing of dirty needles and selling syringes to people who don't need them for medical reasons.

While the unit was targeting Smiths Falls as the centre for the pilot project, the task force could not find a pharmacy there willing to take on the project.  And they haven't had much luck in other areas of the tri-counties because pharmacists worry about what might happen allowing addicts in their stores.

"I really think people need more information," Futcher said.  "Some of the pharmacists' concerns centre around safety of staff."

The task force recently hosted an information session for pharmacists featuring Malcolm Jones, the co-ordinator of a Belleville-area program, to try to address pharmacists' concerns.

"It's a misconception among the general population that it would be a dangerous thing to do.  It has not proven true in places where programs have been set up."

She said the health unit will have to concentrate on public education to get the right messages out about the program to convince the general public and specific groups such as the police about the merits of such programs.

"It will happen wherever we have the most support to start it," she said.

She says people must realize there will be benefits not only in taking needles off the street and protecting the health of addicts, but in the health of taxpayers' pocketbooks as well.

Studies have shown that for every case of HIV a drug addict contracts, it will cost the public $150,000 in health care expenses over their lifetime.