Burger chain sent out 20,000 syringe-style pens in area frequented by rehabilitating drug users to promote range

A BURGER outlet near a drug rehab centre has been slammed for sending out bloody syringe-style pens to promote its range. 

Burger Urge co-owner Sean Carthew with one of the promotional syringes

A BRISBANE burger outlet neighbouring a homeless shelter frequented by rehabilitating drug users is sending out 20,000 pens closely resembling blood-filled syringes to attract customers.

Police visited the Burger Urge store on Brunswick Street this week after local social service workers complained about the pens, made to resemble what addicts call a "jacked up" syringe, being used to advertise the store's new menu, featuring options such as the "Lamb Phetamine" and "Beef Injection" range and burgers such as "The Blue Vein".

Rod Kelly, general manager of the neighbouring 139 Club homeless shelter, described the campaign as being "without any thought of moral and community responsibility".

"I am unable to see any synergy or strategic direction between serving food to the local community and promoting a business through what appears to be a blood-filled syringe," said Mr Kelly, who runs Queensland's biggest homeless day centre, supporting about 70,000 people each year, many of them fighting drug and alcohol addiction.

"I'm an ex-intravenous drug user and, in the early days when I was getting clean, if I saw that in my letterbox it would have made me want to start using again," he said.

"Imagine going to your letterbox ... to find a syringe filled with what looks like blood," he said.

"Parents will be asking their children to check the mailbox only to find a pen that looks identical to a hypodermic syringe."

The Courier-Mail yesterday asked Burger Urge co-owner Sean Carthew, 30, if he was comfortable using intravenous drug addiction to sell burgers in an area plagued by drug-related physical and mental illness.

"Yeah, that's a fair comment," he said.

"Umm ... I am comfortable with it because we talked about it long and hard and, at the end of the day, if someone can't pick up a syringe and realise that it's a pen, you know.

"It doesn't say 'drug addiction' on the pen, it says 'taste addiction'," he said.

"I am comfortable with it. Whether that's a good or bad thing, I don't know."

Mr Kelly has called for the Fortitude Valley community to "seriously consider purchasing products from the store".

An officer from the Brisbane Central District's Crime Prevention unit said there were "a number of concerns" regarding the pens.