Lawmakers allow needle exchange programs

Advocates for needle exchange programs, after years of unsuccessful efforts, have won over the North Carolina legislature.

As lawmakers finished up work on a bill outlining procedures for releasing body camera footage, they added an unrelated provision allowing government and private organizations to operate programs allowing drug addicts to obtain clean needles and syringes.

The proposal is aimed at reducing the spread of HIV, AIDS and hepatitis C, but it forbids groups running the programs from spending public money to buy needles or syringes. House Bill 972 now goes to Gov. Pat McCrory.

The legislative approval comes after some in law enforcement have warmed to the idea.

“It used to be you would never find a law enforcement officer saying, ‘Help an addict by giving him a clean needle,’” said Rep. John Faircloth, a High Point Republican and former police chief who sponsored the bill. “The thinking has changed, and it’s just a move forward in society.”

George Erwin, the executive director of the N.C. Association of Chiefs of Police, said more police chiefs have come to recognize the health and educational benefits of needle exchange programs, but many still have reservations about unintended consequences — especially with heroin use increasing.

“It’s not that they don’t support the health aspect of it,” Erwin said. “They just have concerns about the use of illicit drugs, and rightfully so.”

Tessie Castillo, advocacy and communications coordinator for the N.C. Harm Reduction Coalition, has worked with state legislators over the past five years to make gradual headway on addressing issues of drug treatment.

Aside from reducing the spread of disease, proponents of needle exchange programs say they can reduce needle-stick injuries to law enforcement officers and other emergency personnel and can encourage people who inject drugs to seek treatment.

The bill requires a program employee or volunteer to offer personal consultation to educate individuals who request needles or syringes.

“When they go to get syringes, they get information on treatment every single time,” Castillo said. “That’s even required in the bill. They get access to health care (and) the syringe program connects them to other resources.”

Though Castillo considers the bill a step in the right direction, she is concerned about a clause in the bill stating that “no public funds may be used to purchase needles, hypodermic syringes, or other injection supplies.”

“We need to talk about funding for these programs,” Castillo said. “We did pass it, but there was a caveat in it that public funds can’t be used. We really need treatment centers, nonprofits, foundations, hospitals and stakeholders to help (with funding).”

Faircloth insisted the provision was necessary for him to secure enough support for his bill, which received final approval from the Senate and House on Wednesday. He added that money could come from other sources.

“There are funds out there with private entities to make those purchases so that we can make the program work without having the public money involved,” Faircloth said.

Agencies with needle-exchange programs would have to report annually to the state.

Not everyone was on board with adding the needle exchange proposal to the body cam bill.

Suggesting that government should not be involved in giving people needles and syringes, Rep. Larry Pittman, a Concord Republican, said he planned to support the bill until the needle and syringe exchange program was added.

“They added Section 4 and I can’t vote for it,” Pittman said on the House floor Wednesday. “I know that the section is well intended, but I don’t believe in it. … I wish this had not been added so I could have voted for the rest of the bill.”

When asked Thursday to explain his stance on the issue, Pittman declined to comment.

Late last year, Congress eliminated one obstacle to needle exchanges by allowing federal money to be spent on the programs, although not on buying the needles themselves.

This story was originally published June 30, 2016 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Lawmakers allow needle exchange programs."