sharps disposal units could be mistaken for caches

Mr Router · Post by **Mr Router** » 22 November 05 3:51 pm

Cheesy pigs wrote:<rant>

The reason they are plain black and unmarked is so that injecting drug users can use them 'incognito', as we must protect the 'rights' of drug users to practise their addiction without fear of being identified as a user. </rant>

It scares the crap out of me that this is the way the Lucky country has gone, What is my granddaughter going to see

in her life

What has happened to times when this could be policed

Sic

Papa Bear_Left · Post by **Papa Bear_Left** » 22 November 05 8:12 pm

Cheesy pigs wrote:The reason they are plain black and unmarked is so that injecting drug users can use them 'incognito', as we must protect the 'rights' of drug users to practise their addiction without fear of being identified as a user.

I think it's pragmatism rather than political correctness.

If you attach a huge visible stigma to the use of these things, then IV drug users just won't use them, and we're back to bare needles and needlestick injuries.

However, a semi-discreet marking would help protect casual finders while not making them too unacceptable for users.

GammaPiSigma · Post by **GammaPiSigma** » 22 November 05 9:37 pm

I found one of these containers at the start of Tangles MTB cache. Scary thing is this is just 1km from home and there were other disused needles in the area. That was a while ago and recent visits to this location have not revealed anything. It is still a worry though as lots of kids ride their bikes around the area.
<P>
Mike.

Richary · Post by **Richary** » 22 November 05 10:56 pm

Never seen one of those, apart from the ones in public toilets. On the good side at least there is somewhere for drug users to dispose of needles, but I agree they should be marked. It doesn't have to be in bright yellow letters or something, but even an embossed writing on the plastic the same colour.

Then again the bushes are hardly the right place to chuck them out. Of course people who are high on something aren't going to think of that.

Will be a bit more careful perhaps in Adelaide from now on, and as I am going out with a nurse will ask her how to dispose of them should I find one.

elmofreak · Post by **elmofreak** » 23 November 05 12:51 am

They do tend to have 'sharps disposal unit' embossed on them, you won't see it untill you've picked it up and examined it quite well tho

Team Red Devil · Post by **Team Red Devil** » 23 November 05 1:47 pm

I think its ridiculous.

I'm not going to rant on it- its not worth the high blood pressure.

One thing that peeves me though- the 'powers that be' give these *people* (refrain refrain refrain) the black boxes so they aren't so noticable as drug users- and they STILL can't dispose of them correctly.

How frustrating and awful is it that in this day and age there is no accountability for these people.

Grrrrr.
Marie

Team Red Devil · Post by **Team Red Devil** » 23 November 05 1:49 pm

Just had a brainwave. Why not add a wee little microchip beacon type thingy on the black boxes? Then if they are dumped, they could be traced...not sure how they'd go about that...but its a thought!!

Marie

*I am kidding..I'm aware of the legal ramifications*

Cheesy pigs · Post by **Cheesy pigs** » 23 November 05 3:14 pm

Marie you said.....

Why not add a wee little microchip beacon type thingy on the black boxes? Then if they are dumped, they could be traced...

.....and it reminded me of a time when I worked for a youth centre which gave away needles and syringes in those boxes.....we had a clean cut young man come in (badly psychotic) and threaten to burn the centre down and kill us all because we had planted cameras inside the boxes.

They are so paranoid they think they are already bugged!

"Drugs are bad m'kay?"

Team Red Devil · Post by **Team Red Devil** » 23 November 05 4:00 pm

My brother (22yo) suffered from Drug Induced Schizophrenia...which progressed into Schizophrenia.

He smoked a bit of marijuana (as a lot of young men and women that age do), and he was out one night with some friends who gave him Ecstacy. It must have been a bad batch because both him and a friend were affected majorly.
His first 'episode' was bought on by the Ecstacy, but his subsequent 'episodes' were bought on by the damage they caused to his mind. And the fact he refuses to take his medication, because whenever he feels good (bcoz of the meds) he thinks he's cured, and doesn't need them anymore.

He once told my parents that he knew he was adopted because he doesn't look anything like them (He's almost the spitting image of his father (my stepfather) at that age!!) And he also kept telling them that they could only watch one particular tv channel because there were messages being sent on that channel to him (alien theories). He also put several bolts on his bedroom door, and he constructed a very loud alarm that would sound at night if someone opened his bedroom door.

My family sent him to the hospital as they couldn't handle his behaviour, and my mum told him to pack some clothes. He raided my parents bedroom (when my mother was visiting a neighbours place) and packed all my stepdads survival gear up...(he was in the army reserves). He was fully ready for 'combat'.

The mind is a weird thing...very complicated. I have never understood the need to get 'high' or the like...a mind is a precious thing to waste.

Marie
*who would also like to say that my brother is doing much better now. He went before a judge who ordered him to go weekly and have his medication because he is a danger to himself and others if he doesn't take it, and he's gone regularly ever since.*

Geof · Post by **Geof** » 23 November 05 4:46 pm

May be there are different types of those containers in different states. I saw one about the size and shape of a 2x D Cell torch (yellow). It was so full the handles were poking out the end.
They also issue big ones (yellow) with "clean up australia" packs.

Drugs - yes they can and do screw the brain

. One of the kids a year behind me in school robed my house for a quick $. I heard latter he had died from "OD"ing. His other mate who was into it now sits in a chair and only moves his eyes, breaths and not much else

Get addicted to caching and watch where you put your hands

xf king · Post by **xf king** » 23 November 05 9:23 pm

I have had one of my caches muggled and replaced with a Yellow container full of syringes. But BLACK.. Whats next. I think they need to make these containers more obvious that they are a sharps container. Like putting some syboles on them to alert a person of a dangerous item. Being Pure black is a hard and tricky colour to pick out.

Map Monkey · Post by **Map Monkey** » 23 November 05 9:55 pm

Whilst understanding the perceived need of privacy etc, my major concern still happens to be that they need to include a tamperproof valve (oneway hole) into their product. I don't really care if they are black, blue or pink, however the first issue is that they must have absolutely NO access to the used syringes.

Even most of the simple yellow types are too insecure with a basic "cut plastic" design under the lid.

Agsmky

Zytheran · Post by **Zytheran** » 23 November 05 10:49 pm

From someone who paints his caches with black blackboard paint...

/rant
Doesn't whoever make these things have a 'duty of care' to the general public to have a clearly visible warning for biohazard? I'm not saying make the whole container dayglow yellow because I understand why the users would like to be discrete but for goodness sake a small biohazard symbol can't be that unrealistic so people know what it is?
They may be better than bare needles for your average Joe but for cachers I will avoid the bare needles

but pick up black containers

.
Which might not be a good thing now.

/rant off

Do we have a simple monochrome symbol for geocache we can put on caches?

xf king · Post by **xf king** » 24 November 05 4:12 pm

Why not make thse containers all clear, at least then we can see what is inside them.

setsujoku · Post by **setsujoku** » 24 November 05 7:33 pm

The ones that we use at work are bright yellow, so they are obvious, and everyone knows what they are.

Obviously these ones are quality controlled, and we do only get the one type, but i can imagine that someone could quite easily mistake a different brand of sharps container for a cache, and spend some serious time trying to open it, without realising infact what they are doing. Though hopefully by that stage, most people would think and look at what they have in their hands