(Today’s Northumberland file photo)
There is something profoundly wrong when a family can go to Victoria Beach for a day of fun and leave with a $1,300 medical bill and months of fear.
Think about that.
Three generations of a Cobourg family went to the beach Thursday.
It was supposed to be one final summer day together.
The kind of day families remember.
The children playing.
The adults talking.
Grandparents enjoying time with their grandchildren.
A family tradition.
Until one step turned it into a nightmare.
A mother stepped on a discarded needle.
On Victoria Beach.
Now she has months of medical testing, medication and anxiety ahead of her.
And nobody can tell her what was on that needle.
Can you imagine that?
Every blood test.
Every appointment.
Every time she feels something isn’t quite right.
Every time she thinks about what happened.
What if?
What if the needle was contaminated?
What if she contracted something?
What if this changes her life?
These aren’t hypothetical questions to her.
She has to live with them.
And while she deals with the emotional and physical consequences, her family is also staring at approximately $1,300 in medication costs.
For doing nothing more than going to the beach.
That should make every person in this community angry.
And yes, before someone says it, discarded needles can be found in many communities.
But this wasn’t some back alley.
It wasn’t some secluded field.
It wasn’t some abandoned building.
It was Victoria Beach.
“Our” beach.
One of Cobourg’s most recognizable public spaces.
A place where thousands of people come during the summer.
A place where parents bring their children.
A place where people walk barefoot through the sand.
And apparently, a place where you now have to wonder whether something dangerous is buried beneath your feet.
How is that acceptable?
We have spent years being told that distributing clean needles and other drug-use supplies is about harm reduction.
Fine.
Then let’s talk about all harm.
Where is the harm reduction for the mother who steps on one?
Where is the concern for the child who could pick one up?
Where is the program that protects the grandmother walking barefoot along the beach?
Where is the assistance for the innocent person who ends up paying $1,300 because someone else discarded a needle where it absolutely did not belong?
It’s easy to talk about helping drug users.
It’s easy to talk about compassion.
It’s easy to distribute supplies.
But compassion cannot stop at the person receiving the needle.
What about everyone else?
If an organization believes distributing needles is necessary, then it should also accept responsibility for what happens when those needles are irresponsibly discarded.
And perhaps it’s time to stop pretending that simply putting a sharps container somewhere and hoping for the best is enough.
Maybe organizations distributing this equipment should be required to put serious money into retrieval, cleanup, education and — yes — compensation for innocent people injured by improperly discarded drug paraphernalia.
Because right now, it seems the system has a remarkably convenient arrangement.
The drug user gets the clean needle.
The organization gets to call it harm reduction.
And the innocent victim gets the bill.
How is that fair?
How can we possibly tell this family that the system worked?
It didn’t.
A system that leaves a needle on a public beach has failed someone.
And this time, we know exactly who paid the price.
A mother.
A family.
Three generations who simply wanted one more summer day together.
There will be people who will say we shouldn’t stigmatize addiction.
I agree.
But refusing to ask hard questions isn’t compassion.
It is complacency.
We can care about people struggling with addiction while also demanding that our public spaces remain safe.
We can support harm-reduction programs while demanding accountability.
We can have compassion for one person without sacrificing another.
Those things aren’t mutually exclusive.
And perhaps the people responsible for distributing these needles need to hear something they may not want to hear:
You don’t get to wash your hands of responsibility once the needle leaves your building.
If your organization is going to put drug-use equipment into the community, then you should have a responsibility to make damn sure it doesn’t end up under the bare foot of a mother at the beach.
Because this isn’t an abstract policy debate anymore.
There is a family living it.
And while they wait months for answers, perhaps those responsible should be asked a very simple question:
Are you prepared to pay the $1,300 bill?
More importantly:
Are you prepared to explain to this family why they should have to pay it at all?
Victoria Beach should be a place where children run barefoot.
Where families make memories.
Where three generations can spend a summer day together without fear.
It should never be a place where a mother has to look down at her foot and realize that one innocent step may have changed her life.
That’s not harm reduction.
That’s harm transferred to someone who had absolutely nothing to do with the problem.
And somebody needs to be held accountable for it.
Breaking News – Family Beach Day Turns Into Nightmare After Woman Steps on Needle at Victoria Beach
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
