State gives OK to Orange County mobile syringe exchange program, over local objections

A mobile needle exchange program universally opposed by the county and four affected cities was approved this week by the California Department of Public Health.

State officials decided Monday to let the Orange County Needle Exchange Program operate for two years starting Monday, Aug. 6, according to an email and letter from the department.

Supporters say such programs help reduce the spread of diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C, and are often the only regular contact injection drug users have with health care professionals.

However, in response to objections from the cities the program would visit – Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Orange and Santa Ana – state health officials restricted the nonprofit program to smaller service areas than proposed in Costa Mesa and Santa Ana and limited the times it could operate to three- or four-hour blocks on two days a week in each city. The program had requested a much broader, flexible service schedule.

Those changes don’t seem likely to stem opposition from the cities or Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do, who said previously he might seek legal action to block the program.

“Needle programs like this are a proven failure for the neighborhoods that have to live with their impact, which tend to be lower-income areas,” Do said in a written statement Tuesday.

“Drug needles end up in public libraries, parks and on sidewalks and jeopardize the health and safety of our children,” he said. “What is most offensive about these needle exchange programs is they seek to subvert local interests and ignore city restrictions by (going to) Sacramento bureaucrats who don’t have to face the consequences of their decisions.”

Jemma Alarcon, one of the syringe exchange program’s founders, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment, and the program’s website says it’s still closed.

The county’s only needle exchange was launched in 2016 as a stationary service based in the Santa Ana Civic Center, but it shut down in January after the city denied it a permit to continue operating, citing the public health risk of discarded needles in and around public buildings. So organizers decided to go mobile.

The state will also require the mobile program operators to work with county health officials to offer more used needle disposal kiosks, a hotline to call about found needles or other concerns, and more sweeps of the communities they serve to clean up syringe waste.

But some local officials remain concerned.

“It’s discouraging that they ignored our plea to not do it,” Orange Councilman Mike Alvarez said.

The Santa Ana River Trail homeless encampment that was generating dirty needles has been cleared, reducing the need for such an exchange, he said. And if a need remains, it would be better to connect the exchange program with other homeless facilities that are still in development, Alvarez said – two issues the state seems to have overlooked.

Anaheim officials also remained wary.

“Like other cities, we are dealing with unintended consequences from those who abuse easier needle access and the proliferation of syringes in our public spaces. We will review the state’s decision and consider next steps,” city spokesman Mike Lyster said in an email.

But Glenn Backes, a lobbyist for the Drug Policy Alliance who has co-authored research on syringe exchange programs and policies, said opponents fail to acknowledge that multiple studies have shown access to needle exchanges can reduce rates of some diseases, and the programs have a track record of getting drug users into treatment

“People admit that they want something to be done about these problems,” he said, “but they can be very stubborn when it comes to siting them anywhere near their sight lines.”