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DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL has placed specially-designed syringe disposal bins in two locations close to the city centre as part of a pilot scheme.
The bins, which display biological hazard signs, are in areas where drug litter has been reported to be a serious problem.
It’s believed to be the only such outdoor scheme in the UK and Ireland.
Dublin City Council put these first bins in place last month without any public announcement.
Their locations aren’t being published online: the idea is that people who inject drugs publicly will know where they are and will have an opportunity to dispose of their paraphernalia (you’ll probably be able to figure out at least one location here from the photos: it’s not a State secret or anything, but the team behind the pilot project would rather the specific spots weren’t mentioned).
Businesses and residents of the city have long complained about alleys and laneways littered with syringes. Tony Duffin of the Ana Liffey Drug Project, who has been campaigning for a safe supervised injection centre, estimates that every lane in Dublin is used for public injecting at some point each week.
Workers at an office building next to one of the bin sites had complained about used needles and other drug waste littering pathways as they arrived for work.
“I wholeheartedly commend Dublin City Council for taking this innovative practical approach to the issue of drug related litter,” Duffin said.
“Dublin has a well-documented problem with the public injecting of drugs.
Providing sharps bins in the public domain is just one of a range of proven interventions for reducing drug-related litter.
Unsafe behaviour
HIV and other blood-borne viruses spread among injecting drug users in part because of unsafe injecting behaviour, research has shown.
There was a surge in HIV cases in the city last year – thought, in part, to be due to the increasing popularity of the former head shop drug known as ‘Snow Blow’.
Similar bins have been used in other cities – there are around 470 of them in Melbourne, for instance, while a study of a bin programme in Montreal showed it to be highly effective in reducing drug litter.
While this is the first outdoor placing of drug bins here, they’ve already been used in public toilets in Ireland: in 2013, it was found that the introduction of the special bins had seen a 90% reduction in drug paraphernalia in Cork’s only public toilets.
The two locations will be monitored every day and the pilot scheme’s success will be reviewed at the end of March.
What do you think of the pilot project?
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We know Dylan does not want to publicly receive this so let’s hear about the other winners and what they did to receive such high distinction. That’s the article I want to read.
@Deborah Behan: They told people to vote for Hillary this year???
Well, it would have been a bit inconsistent of him if he had shown up … Sticking to his guns I guess.
He was probably afraid crooked Hillary was going to be there.
interesting Dylan showed up for his presidential medal of freedom and yet appears to be turning up his nose at the Nobel Prize, a tad ungreatful Boll@* impression I’m getting of Dylan.
@Joseph Dempsey: He is not “turning up his nose” at a prize that he never sought and which must have come as a huge surprise to him. He did thank the Swedes for it and said he would attend the ceremony in Stockholm “if at all possible”. Now it seems it isn’t possible, but he doesn’t owe anyone an explanation of why that is so.
And what makes you think he would give a rat’s arse what impression a judgemental little anonymous nobody like you gets?
So what if they were all migrants. As if hordes of Mexican, Irish, and whatever other illegals are equivalent to four British scientists who legally emigrated to the US.
Regarding Bob Dylan, it’s funny that some old twanger who hasn’t had a half decent tune for decades still gets so much attention.
@Naberius:
He did not ask for the attention.
Give it to someone else.someone harder working with more talent.shouldn’t be that hard to find someone.
Red Hurley? Do you have anyone in mind? What’s the name of that Irish singer popular in the 80′s? His name escapes me. He’d be a good Nobel Laureate. What’s his name, Red Hurley? It’s at the tip of my tongue.
‘Migrants’
Escaping the hell holes of Oxford and Cambridge.
One of the greatest song writer of our time.
“All l I can do is be me, whoever that is”
This week I am mostly arrogant and petty.
Too cool for school
Ungrateful arrogant person who should be stripped of the award…Full of his own self importance
@Paul Lane: “Self-important” and “arrogant” for NOT accepting an award?!!?
You need to go back and consult your dictionary, friend!!
@Paul Lane:
Q: What do the following Nobel winners have in common?
Novelist Doris Lessing in 2007, playwright Harold Pinter in 2005 and writer Elfriede Jelinek in 2004?
A: They didn’t accept the award in person
@Fox in the Box: Some could not because of health issues.
@Paul A Whelan: How do you know what shape the 75-year-old Dylan is in? Maybe a trip all the way to Stockholm would be hard on him, but he doesn’t want to moan in public about his health.
No one can nominate themself for the Nobel Prize and Dylan probably had no inkling that he was getting one until the name of the winner was announced in Sweden.
Dylan probably recognises the insanity of the Nobel institute which awarded Obama the Peace Prize in 2008 upon his inauguration as President. Apparently Henry Kissinger was also a ‘peace’ recipient. Nothing could be more hypocritical, insane ,mad crazy as awarding these two war mongers this award. Dylan wrote songs about peace and the ending of wars. So, congratulations Bob. You are consistent as well as being a great singer, song writer, poet and humanitarian.
Besides I’m pretty sure Dylan didn’t put his name forward for the prize in the first place. Why on earth should anyone be expected to turn up for a ceremony they didn’t sign up for.
Just send me the prize money,(€0.93 million)
@Patrick James Walsh: I’m sure Bob needs it as badly as I need a €5 gift from the St. Vincent de Paul Society.
Dylan must be very busy these days.
Is he unwell?
Is he sick of all the B…S…?
have your say