With the city still struggling with various homeless encampments, the city government is resuming a formerly paused needle exchange program to try and stop the spread of diseases in those communities.
“People will use drugs, and our goal is to ensure that people are safe while doing that so we don’t have a public health crisis,” Camila Alarcon-Chelecki of Pittsburgh Public Safety.
Proponents of needle exchanges claim that these programs reduce disease transmission rates and save resources in the long term, while opponents of them claim it is just enabling drug use and adding dangerous used needles to public places like hiking trails and parks.
“I just see more needles being thrown out in the ground and by the river,” North Side resident Nick Santillo said to KDKA. “The city says it’s doing something but clearly it’s not.”
This same needle exchange program was paused last year after the City failed to comply with health department regulations.
A KDKA investigation uncovered that the city failed to develop a plan to ensure used needles were exchanged and remained off the streets. Via a right-to-know request, KDKA obtained dozens of emails showing the city was unable to develop a policy or comply with regulations requiring the accounting and disposal of the needles despite repeated pleas from the health department.
The same KDKA investigation team also documented multiple instances of finding used needles strewn about homeless encampments throughout the city.
The program is now resuming with the city following nonprofit group Prevention Point Pittsburgh’s lead on needle exchange policies. Prevention Point Pittsburgh claims its mission is to “promote and advocate for the reduction of harms associated with injection and other forms of drug use, and to reduce the risk of HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, other blood-borne infections, and overdose.”
Prevention Point will now provide individual sharp disposal boxes to anyone who gets a clean syringe. The organization does admit, however, that it is still the responsibility of the drug user to ensure the needles don’t end up strewn about the city streets.
“As with all of our supplies, it’s incumbent on the participants to use them,” said Prevention Point Executive Director Aaron Arnold in an interview with KDKA’s Andy Sheehan.
