CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - As New Hampshire lawmakers decide whether to allow needle exchange programs, some of the biggest debate has been over how to handle the smallest amounts of drugs. Under current law, hypodermic needles and syringes can be dispensed only by pharmacists, and possessing a syringe containing any amount of heroin or other controlled drug is a felony. But faced with the state's growing drug crisis, the Legislature is considering a bill that would both clear the way for programs that allow drug users to swap dirty syringes for clean ones and would decriminalize residual amounts of drugs in syringes. It passed the House on Wednesday and now heads to the Senate. [continues 206 words]
No Budget Yet: Top Doc How Much Will Safe Injection Sites Cost Toronto? Dr. David McKeown, the city's chief medical officer of health, can't say right now, but they hope the province will help fund the three proposed drug injection sites that will be scattered across the city. McKeown is in the midst of consulting the public about his recommendation to allow three existing clinics that offer harm reduction services to begin to provide supervised injections. "We have a sense of what the scale of the programs should be, but we don't have budgets yet - that'll come later on," McKeown told the Toronto Sun's editorial board Wednesday. [continues 321 words]
Dead people don't recover. That's the working principle behind harm reduction: Avoiding the ultimate harm that could befall drug addicts by facilitating lesser harms, primarily via aiding and abetting in the consumption of those drugs in a safer environment. The idea is somewhat counterintuitive. It also puts the addict at the centre of a radical social policy that doesn't always give sufficient consideration to the broader community that will be affected. Good intentions can lead to bad consequences. [continues 787 words]
Plan May Need Boost in Police Presence, Cop Association Boss Says Neighbourhoods that end up with supervised drug-injection sites may need more cops, the head of Toronto's police union warned. Toronto's chief medical officer of health, Dr. David McKeown, is expected to release a report Monday on drug injection sites. A source confirmed McKeown will recommend a pilot project of three to five supervised drug-injection sites in the city. Toronto Public Health refused to discuss the pilot project and said McKeown was unavailable for an interview. [continues 465 words]
Discarded needles are becoming an increasing problem in the downtown Duncan area. The city's public works department has sent a memo to businesses downtown that staff have been encountering a lot of discarded needles in the area that are being left in garbage cans, public washrooms, parks, trails and other sites. The memo stated that the number of discarded needles being found in the area is up to approximately two dozen a month, a dramatic increase from just six months ago. [continues 285 words]
It's concerning on a number of levels that the volume of used needles being found around town has seen a big spike in the last six months. About two dozen a month isn't a reason to panic, certainly, but it's enough to make us want to know why there's so many turning up in our public places all of a sudden. Make no mistake, it is highly unlikely that these needles are from random diabetics needing to give themselves insulin. [continues 284 words]
The Volunteer- Run Nonprofit, Started by Uci Medical Students, Aims to Lower Addicts' Exposure to Infections. A year ago, a group of UC Irvine medical students realized that Orange County was missing what they considered an important public health service that every major city in California had access to: a clean- needle exchange program. So they decided to do something about it. The students organized with partners across the region and submitted a plan to the California Department of Public Health. The agency rejected the plan last summer, noting a lack of community support and funding for a program. [continues 544 words]
OTTAWA- The Liberal government should implement prison-based needle and syringe programs to address rates of HIV and hepatitis C estimated to be 10 to 30 times higher than in the general population, proponents say. Emily van der Meulen of Ryerson University, the lead author of a recent study, said she wants to see the government review evidence on the effectiveness of programs that have operated in countries like Switzerland for more than 20 years. "I'm hopeful that the government will look to this evidence, as well as to our recent research report," she said. [continues 333 words]
A group of volunteers plans to give away clean syringes to drug addicts Saturday afternoon at the Santa Ana Civic Center, launching a weekly effort - the first of its kind in Orange County - to prevent the spread of HIV and hepatitis C. Both diseases are commonly spread among users who share needles along with the "cookers" and "cottons" used to dissolve and filter drugs. Sterile supplies are scarce in Orange County, said state health officer Dr. Karen Smith. Volunteers from the nonprofit Orange County Needle Exchange Program will set up behind a folding table near City Hall in an area where hundreds of homeless people gather. [continues 423 words]
Are these bleeding hearts serious? How about the staff/ guards do their job and stop the drugs from getting into the prison in the first place? That would seem like an even more cost-effective way of fighting the growing HIV and hep C problem. Taxpayers are already paying for luxuries for criminals that citizens that follow our laws don't get free (cable, eye glasses, dental care, prescription drugs, food, roof over their head, etc). Since the 1970s, we have allowed the bleeding hearts to make Canadian prisons into a vacation resort (a free one at that). Criminals have not turned into model citizens, they have just become more violent and bold, with no fear of going to a prison "resort." C. W. Carpenter Ottawa (Have to disagree on that. Sentences may be too light for some crimes, but we're under no illusion that prison time is fun time.) [end]
OTTAWA - The Liberal government should implement prison-based needle and syringe programs to address rates of HIV and hepatitis C estimated to be 10 to 30 times higher than in the general population, proponents say. Emily van der Meulen of Ryerson University, the lead author of a recent study, said she wants to see the government review evidence on the effectiveness of programs that have operated in countries like Switzerland for more than 20 years. "I'm hopeful that the government will look to this evidence, as well as to our recent research report," she said. [continues 187 words]
Thank you for your article in The Chronicle regarding "Coordinated effort to remove syringes" (Feb. 9). I hope you'll consider exploring this subject further, looking at the root causes of the incredible increase in improperly discarded needles. Where are all these thousands of needles coming from? Why the exponential increase? How much is attributable to the disappearance of needle exchange programs and their replacement with needle giveaways? Is this policy right for San Francisco? What other cities have changed this policy? What differentiates successful implementations from unsuccessful? Even if exchange is not required, can we mandate that the giveaways accept used needles for disposal (apparently many do not)? We need to find a solution to the root of the problem. Cleanup is good, but it's just a BandAid. Tim Miller, San Francisco [end]
Researchers hope Liberals' 'evidence-based' approach will endorse safe-injection programs After years of pushing for safe drug-injection programs in Canadian jails, health advocates say mounting evidence and a new government in Ottawa present a chance to finally make it happen. In a report published Wednesday, researchers in Toronto provide a framework for the introduction of what they call "prison-based needle and syringe programs" in Canada - programs that the authors argue are sorely needed in provincial and federal jails to address levels of HIV and Hepatitis C infections that are "astronomically" high compared with those in the general population. [continues 723 words]
CAMBRIDGE - Here in a nameless brick building, people addicted to drugs come to get what they need. Not heroin or other narcotics, but the accessories - and more. A smiling receptionist takes back used syringes and hands out sterile ones to those who register (no names needed; each client gets a number). A framed placard advises on needle selection. Members can also help themselves to tourniquets, cotton swabs, bandages, and other supplies. It may look like complicity, but the AIDS Action Committee's needle exchange in Central Square is no rogue operation. Decades of research show that needle exchanges prevent disease, do not increase drug use, and sometimes coax far-gone addicts into treatment. [continues 1257 words]
Put a bounty on used syringes, perhaps 25 cents each. There are plenty of people on the streets collecting cans and bottles, why not syringes as well? Let the needle exchange make the payments. Far cheaper than increasing the budgets for streets and parks who clean up. A bounty on needles would be as effective as a redeemable deposit has been for cans and bottles. Steve Glaeser, Berkeley [end]
In 1997, I went to a "needle exchange" in San Francisco to see firsthand how the "harm reduction program" prevented the spread of HIV among addicts. Exchange staff offered vitamins, treatment for sores and referrals to kick the habit; addicts handed over carefully bundled needles in a one-dirty-for-one-clean exchange. Users' participation demonstrated that they had not given up on themselves. The needle program began with good intentions. In the 1990s, addicts often shared needles - and HIV. The pioneer program promised to save lives make users responsible for syringe disposal. Little did I know that over the next two decades, in San Francisco and other U.S. cities, "needle exchange" would morph into "syringe access." [continues 486 words]
CITY STAFF concerned for children's safety at Maffeo Sutton Park Twelve drug needles found dumped in Maffeo Sutton Park children's playground this fall was a shock to city horticulturalist Margaret Mills, who says it's a rare find and "very upsetting." But it's nothing new for the downtown community, which is grappling with an uptick in discarded drug paraphernalia. A parent alerted Mills, who maintains the waterfront park, on Oct. 20 that there were 12 needles left in the children's playground. Six were still in a package, while the other half were used. [continues 518 words]
Needle-exchange programs are an effective means of preventing the spread of HIV, connecting individuals in need with social services and even preventing the improper disposal of drug paraphernalia. According to the latest figures from the California Department of Public Health, Orange County reported 972 Hepatitis C cases and 502 of Hepatitis B in 2011. As of June 30, 2014, the county also had the fourth-highest number of HIV cases in the state. Injection drug use is a significant risk factor for all of them and a known factor in the majority of Hepatitis C cases and roughly 10 percent of HIV infections. [continues 537 words]
Langley city council voted down a motion Sept. 14 to have staff report back on advice and recommendations on the viability of a needle exchange program - leaving one councillor concerned about their lack of understanding regarding harm-reduction practices. "Many of these people, not only on council but on staff, have no concept whatsoever of the term harm reduction, so that's why I served that notice of motion," said Coun. Dave Hall. "It was a request for education, so if you look at the details of the motion, it wasn't advocating a needle exchange, it wasn't advocating needle depositories, it was simply asking staff to go and look at what other communities are doing and come back to council and basically educate them." [continues 138 words]
City Hall Was a Tense Arena for a Discussion on Harm Reduction Tuesday Just how dangerous is a discarded, used needle? At Tuesday's council meeting, that question was at the forefront of a presentation by officials from Fraser Health, who maintained that needles found around town actually posed no more risk to the average resident than a rusty nail, because diseases like HIV don't survive in conditions outside the body for a long period of time. The point was met with plenty of derision from the crowd of more than 30 residents attending the meeting, who joined council to pressure Fraser Health to step up efforts to stem the tide of needles ending up in parks, and schools around the City. [continues 457 words]
