For years now, it’s been a blight on the community — thousands of discarded drug needles littering the city of Kelowna.
It’s a side-effect of harm reduction programs, which see hundreds of thousands of free syringes distributed each year in Kelowna.
The public has been urged not to touch the needles, but call the Kelowna Fire Department instead. Now in an effort to reduce the number of pickup calls, there is a new message for residents: don’t be afraid to pick up used needles yourself.
Kelly Hayes reports.