Belfast: Public needle bin ‘isn’t a silver bullet’ for medication factor

A proposed trial to put in a waste needle bin in Belfast town centre isn’t a “silver bullet” however one step to coping with medication problems within the town, a councillor has mentioned.

Brian Smyth used to be talking forward of a Belfast City Council vote on Thursday on whether or not or to not set up the bin within the council-owned automotive park on Little Donegall Street.

Councillors selected the automobile park over a web site on Corporation Square on the People and Communities Committee closing month.

Green Party consultant Smyth mentioned the council used to be lifting between 600 and 700 needles a month within the town centre, with different organisations additionally concerned within the choice of needles.

A council document mentioned there were an build up in needle reveals in fresh months and it were “highlighted as being in the top six locations” for discarded needles.

The proposed steel needle bin can be concreted to the bottom and can supply a protected method of taking away sharps.

Smyth had prior to now tabled motions for an identical boxes to be positioned in Writer’s Square, on the other hand this isn’t council land.

He mentioned the Department for Communities (DfC) had grew to become down this name.

“They are worried about image but I would say if needles continue to be found in the area of high significance, then that’s going to provide an image problem,” he mentioned.

A DfC spokesperson mentioned it recognised that drug abuse and related anti-social behaviour within the town centre used to be a significant factor and used to be operating intently with different organisations, together with the council, to take on the issues.

Smyth mentioned individuals of the council’s cleaning group had discovered needles disposed in common garbage boxes.

“This poses a risk not only to them but also to members of the public,” he mentioned.

“Whilst this is a very small response, I think we need to get our heads around the bigger issue of rising drug use in and around Belfast city centre and how we tackle it.”

In March 2023, Belfast City councillors handed a movement in favour of putting in place a secure injecting facility to lend a hand save you overdoses amongst drug customers.

The council has no prison energy to open a facility and a transformation in law can be required for this to occur.

The goal can be to cut back overdoses and drug-related hurt in addition to making drug use much less visual to the neighborhood.

Smyth mentioned any such facility may make the realm secure for “people who live, work and socialise in the city centre”.

Damian McNairney, a volunteer and trustee from The People’s Kitchen in Belfast, mentioned the bin would lend a hand however described Belfast town centre as being in a drug disaster.

The kitchen gives toughen to inclined and homeless other people.

“We need to be more adventurous, we need to be more compassionate in our approach to the issue,” mentioned Mr McNairney.

“Addicts are being demonised, we need to look and see if we can help.

“If we clear up the issue at supply, i.e. the habit, then we’re going so as to care for the drug paraphernalia and the opposite problems allied to that.”

Mr McNairney said there were other areas with “extra outstanding use” but getting needles off the street was always a positive.

“There are needles across the the city anyway. By now not hanging the boxes up they are now not going to depart,” he said.

Mr McNairney said he had visited a safe injection site which opened in Dublin in 2024 and he was in favour of a similar facility in Belfast.

“It appears to be very encouraging relating to other people the usage of it, there is drug paraphernalia that has been taken off the streets, it is being safely disposed of and other people with addictions are being signposted to different services and products,” he mentioned.

In March, Justice Minister Naomi Long advised BBC News NI that the “struggle on medication had now not been gained” and there had to be a reconsider of ways unlawful medication had been handled in Northern Ireland.