Ottawa’s pharmacists are frustrated that they have been blamed for the number of dirty needles being collected on the city’s streets.

The complaint, which will be tabled at City Hall Thursday, stems from a briefing note by the city’s former medical officer of health, Dr. David Salisbury, to Coun. Diane Holmes on March 12, which states “legitimate purchases from pharmacies ... represent a significant portion of the needles on the street.”

This year, the city has collected 149,347 more dirty needles than the clean ones it’s given out to drug users, raising questions as to where they are coming from.

Salisbury also speculated to the Sun last year the needle source could be a syringe black market or Hull needle distributors.

The Ottawa-Carleton Pharmacists’ Association claims there’s no proof behind Salisbury’s assertion that pharmacies are a source of the needles.

The association contacted the city in April 2008 airing its concerns and this past August asked the city to retract Salisbury’s claim that was published in the April and June 2008 reports.

“Pharmacists in Ottawa are frustrated in that the City of Ottawa is inferring that the sale of syringes at pharmacies (is) contributing to the problem of discarded needles in the community,” wrote Mark Kearney, past president of the association, in an Aug. 14 letter sent to Ottawa Public Health. The letter will be tabled at Thursday’s community and protective services committee meeting.

The association received several complaints from its members and there is no “official study” to support the statement, Kearney wrote.

Several pharmacies stopped selling needles after Salisbury’s accusation.

Etienne Misigaro, a pharmacist at Astley’s Pharmasave located at Rideau St. near Chapel St., was one of the pharmacies that stopped selling needles to addicts.

“We know the use for them and what they encourage,” said Misigaro.

He still sells to known diabetic customers.

Kearney said after pharmacies prohibited the sale to addicts they were attacked again by another city report claiming they were contributing to spread of HIV and hepatitis C.

The city has collected 516,242 needles as of Sept. 30 and says it has distributed 366,895 through the site clean needle syringe program clients.

The current medical officer of health wasn’t available for comment, nor was Holmes.

kenneth.jackson@sunmedia.ca