Richard Ladoucer is now sober, and he’s offering help to other addicts on Lethbridge streets through the ARCHES Outreach Program, formerly the HIV connection.
Once a week Ladoucer and others trek across the downtown core, offering clean needles and other items to drug addicts. Over the years, the outreach team has built trust with its needle exchange clients.
The amount of needles ARCHES gives out every week could be called shocking showing just how prevalent intravenous drug use is on Lethbridge streets.
Global’s Kimberly Tams tagged along with the ARCHES outreach group Wednesday, and had a glimpse of a world many never see in Lethbridge.