Paul Lalonde is new to Guelph, but he has discovered an old problem along the Speed River.
While walking his dog “Allie” through Goldie Mill Park, he took a riverside path and found an area strewn with injection drug litter, including needles and empty dime bags, tiny plastic bags used to hold small amounts of illicit drugs.
Lalonde, who lives on nearby Cardigan Street, said since moving to the city earlier this year he and his dog have been sidestepping needles and other drug-related detritus in Goldie Mill Park most everyday.
He has contacted the City of Guelph, and his city councillor, James Gordon, to inquire about the viability of installing a permanent used needle depository in the park.
“I’ve seen young people down here several times,” Lalonde, a corporate communications specialist, said Wednesday while at the site. “You see them sharing a big bong. And there’s needles and crack baggies on the ground.”
But the site is not a new hangout for injection drug users, and it is far from the only outdoor site.
Guelph Police said Wednesday that a wooded area at the end of short Commercial Street in the downtown is a well-known area for injection drug users.
Guelph Police Chief Jeff DeRuyter said intravenous drug use, particularly of crystal meth, is on the rise in the city. There has been an increased number of reports of needles and other gear being left in public spaces and in the washrooms of downtown businesses. That, he said, reflects increased drug use.
“There has been an apparent increase in intravenous drug use in our downtown,” DeRuyter said.
What the police service can do, he added, is increase patrols in the downtown, especially on foot and bike.
“We can make sure that we have a more visible presence,” he said, adding that there has been successful bike enforcement at sites along the river.
An inspection of the Commercial Street location found that it has been cordoned off with police tape and has a “no trespassing” sign affixed to a tree. Mike Gatto, Guelph Police spokesperson, said the city is looking at ways to deter drug activity at the site, possibly by trimming the trees. It is directly behind an elementary school.
Ed Pickersgill is the coordinator of 40 Baker Street, an agency that offers a number of programs and services for the marginalized, for at-risk youth, and people with substance abuse issues.
One program offers new drug gear as a harm reduction measure. A large plastic trunk is filled with all manner of clean, packaged equipment. Pickersgill oversees its distribution at 40 Baker. The equipment is supplied by agencies like HIV/AIDS Resources and Community Health, and Sanguen Health Centre.
He said controlled injection sites, like those in Vancouver, are not legal in Ontario. Those facilities offer clean equipment, a space in which to inject, clean-up, and dispose of needles. Advocates are lobbying to bring them to Toronto.
Pickersgill agrees that Injection drug use is on the rise in Guelph, but it has been around for decades, and so have the outdoor injection hangouts. He said there are several areas along the Speed River that are frequented, as well as in wooded areas elsewhere in the city.
Intravenous drug users are known to shoot-up wherever there are public access washrooms, including in libraries, the train station, in coffee shops, and even in places like St. George’s Square. It is not a difficult activity to hide, even in a public place, he indicated.
There is a definite public safety concern from the activity, he said, and that is related to used needles and the presence of blood. Those needles can be contaminated with infectious diseases like HIV and Hepatitis C. People can accidentally get pricked by them if users leave them on washroom floors or waste baskets, or on the ground.
Paul Lalonde said he hires a dog-walker that will not walk dogs through Goldie Mill Park. There was a report of a dog being stuck with a needle. And given the close proximity of the Guelph Youth Music Centre, Lalonde worries about children coming in contact with used drug injection gear.
“Absolutely, I’m concerned about public safety,” he said. “And it doesn’t make the park feel very welcoming. Many people have expressed concern.”
Is there a need in Guelph for a safe, controlled injection site? Pickersgill believes there is.
“It would give much more transparent safety issues for addicts who are using needles,” he said. But in the absence of a proper injection site, drug users will use anywhere that is convenient.
He said safety disposal units provided by Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health are placed in a number of public washrooms. 40 Baker has one in its washroom.
He added that the banks of Speed River were used for drug injection going back to the 60s and 70s, when Guelph was known as “Speed City.”
