Buzz, buzz.

The scanner blares on a regular basis.

sa国际传媒淐all for a needle pickup.sa国际传媒�

Itsa国际传媒檚 a regular routine for first-responders due to the opioid epidemic, as they are called out to remove used needles day in and day out.

According to a City of Kelowna report, from September to November, most needle pickups occurred downtown.

Needle pickups happened 45 times in the downtown, 12 in the Pandosy area, nine in Rutland and six in the Springfield/Gordon/Dilworth area.

However, the largest number of needles found during a pickup was in the Springfield/Gordon/Dilworth area with 320 needles, which was significantly higher than the number of needles found during other pickups.

Kelowna parks services manager Blair Stewert said city staff sometimes find stashes of needles which can contribute to larger numbers found at one time.

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Needle collection numbers spiked in March, with 1,602 found, but fewer needles have been found this year compared to 2016.

Itsa国际传媒檚 tough to gather comparisons between years, said Stewert. sa国际传媒淧eople move around and the people that are using them move around so itsa国际传媒檚 never guaranteed that the same people are in the same area all the time.sa国际传媒�

The data collected also does not say whether needles are used, still in the package, or bundled together.

sa国际传媒淲esa国际传媒檙e working on that now to see whether we can produce an appsa国际传媒� to record the information more accurately,sa国际传媒� said Stewert.

Deputy fire chief Larry Hollier said the concentration of needles found by firefighters is downtown, sa国际传媒渂ut we do get needle calls in all four of our stations. So itsa国际传媒檚 across the city, but itsa国际传媒檚 not rampant by any means.sa国际传媒�

More needles are also found during the summer, he said, and the number of needle calls varies from week to week.

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Companies downtown have taken needle cleanup into their own hands.

At Blenz Coffee on Bernard Avenue, franchise owner Sophie Brown said she considered having a needle disposal in the bathrooms and has implemented policies at the store to try and prevent overdoses and needles left in there.

sa国际传媒淲e try to enforce a customer-only policy with our bathrooms and we do have keys for them. Staff is required to knock if anyone is in there for an excessive amount of time to prevent drug use in the bathroom, but we do find needles occasionally,sa国际传媒� she said.

The policies were put in place because the store was experiencing an issue with dirty needles found in the bathrooms.

sa国际传媒淎 lot of business owners started putting gates on their doorways and cracking down on security and it kind of petered away,sa国际传媒� she said.

Brown would love to see more of a crackdown on the drug use and homelessness issues in Kelowna by the city.

sa国际传媒淚tsa国际传媒檚 the proximity to Bernard Avenue. A lot of these people are filtering over and itsa国际传媒檚 definitely hurting businesses downtown,sa国际传媒� she said.

Starbucks locations on Bernard and Harvey Avenues installed needle containers, sa国际传媒渕ore than five years ago to provide a disposal method for needles and other sharp objects that is safe for customers and partners,sa国际传媒� said associate communications manager Mary Franssen.

Containers can also be found in the bathrooms of the Okanagan Regional Library downtown.

The Downtown Kelowna Business Association has a sharps program, where needles are picked up in partnership with Interior Health and the City of Kelowna.

Executive director Ninette Ollgaard said itsa国际传媒檚 not just a downtown issue, itsa国际传媒檚 an Okanagan and B.C.-wide one.

The number of needles found in the past few year varies because of the preferred method of ingesting substances, she said.

To report a typo, email: edit@kelownacapnews.com.

carli.berry@kelownacapnews.com
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