LAKE COUNTY — The Lake County Board of Supervisors will consider supporting a needle exchange program in the county at its Tuesday meeting.
The resolution before the board would authorize a clean needle and syringe exchange program under Assembly Bill 547, signed into law Jan. 1, 2006. In 2000, AB 136 set up a provision that protected government organizations and employees from criminal prosecution for giving hypodermic needles to injection drug users during a planned exchange, provided that a state of health emergency was declared first. AB 547 streamlined the needle exchange process by removing the requirement that a state of emergency be declared.
According to a December 2005 report from the California Department of Health Services (CDHS), “sharing of contaminated syringes and other injection equipment is linked to 19 percent of all reported AIDS cases in the state. State data suggests that over 1,500 new syringe-sharing HIV infections occur annually.”
The exchange program would allow injection drug users to safely dispose of used syringes and get new, sterile syringes. Services offered at needle exchange sites throughout California include HIV counseling and testing, hepatitis C counseling, safer sex and safer injection materials, first aid and referrals to drug treatment.
The CDHS report estimates that between 500,000 and 600,000 Californians are infected with hepatitis C, and that 5,000 people are infected annually. “It is estimated that 60 percent of these infections are related to injection drug use,” the report states. As high as 90 percent of the state”s injection drug users are estimated to have the virus.
AB 547 will require a Lake County health official to make an annual report to the board of supervisors about the effectiveness of the syringe exchange program, including statistics on blood-borne infections associated with needle sharing in the county. Lake County Health Services Department director Jim Brown is bringing the discussion before the board Tuesday, in cooperation with the harm reduction outreach program Any Positive Change.
The CDHS report says that syringe exchange programs in 17 of California”s 53 counties have not resulted in more drug use, higher neighborhood crime rates or increased syringe litter.
According to the Any Positive Change Web site for Lake County, www.anypositivechange.net, “There are many diabetic senior citizens who can”t afford to dispose of their insulin syringes properly who would benefit if there was legal needle exchange in Lake County.”
The discussion is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Lake County Board of Supervisors chambers in the Lakeport courthouse.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
