Hi Everyone,
This is a tough question to answer. This is what I mean.
Few people would dispute that there is an opioid problem, or crisis, in Toronto. To be fair, the media has stated that there is a opioid crisis in North America. That may be true. In the meantime, we here in Toronto are dealing with this issuse whether we want to or not.
A lot of people don’t know this but I had an operation in late March 2016 and was in Sunnybrook hospital for a week. My surgeon, (one of four in Canada) gave me a doctors’ note to stay off of work for 3 months and strongly suggested that I walk everyday. When I told him that I love walking and already walk a fair bit he said, “If you used to walk 40 hours a week, you need to walk 60 hours a week.” I am telling you this because I have taken his advice very seriously and walk a lot every week.
Walking in Toronto is interesting. I see a great deal and not all of it is pretty. Toronto has changed a fair bit in the last two-plus years of my prescribed walking. I am seeing used needles in parks less than 30 metres from the bright yellow Needle Drop Box because drug users, or drug abusers, could not be bothered to put them in the Needle Drop Box or at the very least, put the stopper on it. One day, in the same park, I found more dirty needles than cigarette butts. I am serious. Not only is that park was in a high-end area, there is a guy who is paid by a private company to pick up needles a few hours a day. Again, I am serious.
In an other high-end area of Toronto, I saw three people walking on the street. Two of them made their way to the front steps of someone’s house, sat down and did what looked like a drug deal as the third person watched the street. Since I have walked past that house numerous times, I knew it was for sale and saw the listing price was over 2 million dollars. That street has a lot of expensive houses and one Tesla. And no, that was not in the Annex. About six months earlier I saw a used needle half way up that same street too.
On the other side of Toronto, I can’t even cut through a park because I have seen people openly smoking crack so often that I am afraid to get it in my system just from walking past them. No more as the crow flies for me between 9am to 9:30pm. I am guessing that they are staying in shelters after that time. Whatever the case, I will have to take the long way. And yes I know that there are only a few places for people to safely smoke crack. Moss park is one of them.
There are so many needles around the Safe Injection Site on Victoria Street, right by Yonge and Dundas Square, that having the Needle Drop Box is a reminder of how few people use the site and again who can’t even be bothered to dispose of their dirty needles. When I mentioned it to someone they said, “At least they are close enough to get naloxone if they overdose.” For anyone who doesn’t know, naloxone is a drug used to reverse overdoses. My thought was, “Why aren’t they just going inside, where they could safely do their (illegal) drugs?” I later discovered, that some users, abusers, like their privacy. On a side note, some Safe Injection Sites and Overdose Prevention Sites, provide people who have just shot up with a place to chill and snacks. Like apple and orange slices and a juice so they can regain their strength. I am serious.
When city cleaners see one of more needles they pull out this machine that looks like a cell phone, take a picture, point it north, scroll through a list of streets/laneways, highlight that street/laneway, and then make notes before pushing send. The one man I spoke to said that the largest number of needles he recorded in one working day of 7.5 hours was 127. That is 16.9333 dirty needles an hour! Don’t believe me, than you do the math. All of the information that he collects goes to Public Health and they send someone to clean up the needles, which again do not have the stoppers on them. I had that conversation with him, less than two and a half months ago.
If drug users and drug abusers aren’t going to use the Safe Injection Sites it would be nice if they would at the very least put stoppers on used needles if they aren’t going to put them in a Needle Drop Box conveniently located–everywhere. Then I and other poeple, wouldn’t have to worry about our safety, our health while out and about. It’s summer, I want to walk safely in sandles or flip flops. Don’t you?
Should Toronto have Safe Injection Sites? I don’t know. With the growing number of needles that I find, it doesn’t seem like drug users, drug abusers, are using them.
Thank you for reading, A. Rebel’s Rant! ;D
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