Needle Exchange Program -- again > Rexroad.com

The Board of Supervisors has dealt with the issue of a needle exchange twice before. Once I lost 4-1 and once I lost 3-2.

It is going to come up again at the end of the month. The reality is that the current proposal is really a needle give away and not an exchange.

When I brought up my objections the first time I was told that a needle exchange was almost unsafe because employees had to count needles and it was not safe. Well, take a look at what Sonoma County is doing. They give a sharps container with the needles so the user and the employee can safely give back the needles when they EXCHANGE them.

I think people kind of laughed at me when I suggested that I wanted to keep used needles off playgrounds. Well guess what. When legislation on this topic was passed one of the things that was included was to make it illegal to dispose of needles on playgrounds. That doesn't do anything for me. We need to stop the kid from getting hurt..that should be the priority.

I even found some literature indicating that most needle exchange programs and one for one exchanges. What we are going to adopt in Yolo County is not an exchange at all. It is a give away program that expects drug users to behave in a responsible way.

Comments

By duane750 @ Saturday, July 21, 2007 10:04 AM

Matt:
Here is another problem I have with this. If the county is giving out needles to people who are drug users and need their fix and are being enabled by the Yolo County Board of Supervisors (3 of them) to continue their drug habit, they are also putting the same user at risk of being cited or arrested for possession of these same needles under the B&P Code in addition to the H&S Code. My question, are drug users exempted from this law?
In another words, the drug user can have free acces to needles without penalty, regardless of the law?
This whole thing stinks!

By perkoff @ Monday, July 23, 2007 5:59 PM

Why doesn't the compassionate bleeding heart Board of Supervisors show real compassion for those unfortunate folks suffering from the dreaded disease of drug addiction and administer drugs directly to the user thus guaranteeing used needles will not become a problem...
Absurd you say! Absolutely, it is! However, in my view, not any more then what the board is contemplating!

love paying taxes........

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