Pubdate: Wed, 14 Mar 2007
Source: Baltimore Messenger (MD)
Email:  http://news.mywebpal.com/index.cfm?pnpid=574
Address: 409 Washington Avenue, Towson, MD 21204
Fax: 410-337-2490
Copyright: 2007 Patuxent Publishing Co
Author: Adam Bednar

CITY UNHAPPY WITH NEEDLE EXCHANGE SITE

The Baltimore City Health Department is considering asking the 
Hampden Community Council for a new site for a needle exchange 
program for users of intravenous drugs, primarily heroin.

Exchange program director Lamont Coger said the current site in the 
3800 block of Buena Vista Avenue has been used infrequently by drug 
users since the site was approved by the community council last 
November after two months of debate.

Cogersaid he doesn't have a specific area in mind for a new site, but 
would like it to be closer to Falls Road, where he thinks the program 
would be better received by intravenous drug addicts.

Initially, health officials wanted a site on Falls Road near the 
Jones Falls Expressway off ramp. But that proposal was rejected by 
community council members in October.

They said it was too close to the Roosevelt Recreation Center and 
Robert Poole Middle School on 36th Street.

The council also rejected alternative sites in the 3200 block of 
Falls Road, the 3500 block of Clipper Mill Road and the corner of 
Keswick Road and Wyman Park Drive. But 35 of 36 voting council 
members voted for the Buena Vista site.

Hampden Community Council president Genny Dill said this week health 
officials are more than welcome to approach the council about finding 
a new site.

"There are some other location alternatives," Dill said.

Dill said she had not yet been approached by Coger or other program 
representatives about changing the site.

The Hampden program is part of a 12-year-old citywide needle exchange 
program run by Baltimore Substance Abuse Inc. on behalf of the health 
department.

The program's goal is to give addicts clean needles, condoms and 
counseling in exchange for dirty needles as a way to prevent the 
spread of HIV and AIDS through intravenous drug use.

Health officials decided Hampden needed a site after seeing a rise in 
911 calls about opiate-related overdoses in 2006.

But Dill, a supporter of the program's presence in Hampden, said the 
city is missing the mark with the needle exchange.

The biggest problem in the neighborhood is related to people taking 
oxycodone pills, not intravenous drug use, Dill said.

And the neighborhood would be better served by a program designed to 
get addicts into rehabilitation quickly, Dill said.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman