Parents speak out after kids find drug paraphernalia, used needles in Halifax

Parents in the Halifax area are voicing concerns as children have been finding drug paraphernalia in their neighbourhoods. In one case, a child was pricked by a discarded needle.

Halifax-area parents are voicing concerns, saying children have been finding drug paraphernalia and that, in one case, a child was pricked by a discarded needle.

Five months ago, Emily Medford wouldn’t have batted an eye at her seven-year-old son playing in a pile of leaves. That’s all changed after he was pricked by a needle at a bus stop on Gottingen Street in the city’s north end.

“You’re scared because you don’t know, was the person clean? What kind of drugs was it? And you’re not thinking, ‘Oh my god, I need to bag up this needle and take it to the hospital,'” she said.

“It was just grab your child and let’s go.”

Across the harbour in Dartmouth’s Highfield Park neighbourhood, residents say they’re used to seeing drug paraphernalia scattered on the streets, especially at bus stops.

“My two-year-old picks up everything, so he’s constantly picking stuff up off the ground,” area resient Karissa Duffy said. “Maybe there should be a sharps container at every bus stop. Maybe there should be one outside of every apartment building.”

Medford told Global News she agrees with the idea of supervised consumption sites and believes such sites could help with the situation.

Duffy isn’t convinced.