As state public health officials consider reintroducing needle exchanges in Santa Ana, city officials are reiterating their longstanding protest against the practice.
It’s an issue Santa Ana grappled with last year.
[Read: Santa Ana Officials Object to State’s Approval of Needle Exchange Program]
City officials say the program – run by the Harm Reduction Institute – threatens the public health and safety of residents with littered syringes.
For months, Santa Ana Mayor Valerie Amezcua publicly told residents the needle exchange program may soon be reauthorized.
“We don’t want this here. We don’t deserve it, and we’re not going to stay quiet about it,” Amezcua said in a Feb. 20 special meeting. “Go to Irvine, go to Orange, go wherever you want. But don’t come here to Santa Ana.”
The syringe service has seen repeated pushback from the dais, as Council member David Penaloza pointed out during the same meeting.
In the past, city leaders attempted to introduce an ordinance that would ban needle programs within city limits.
Despite unanimous approval from all council members, City Attorney Sonia Carvalho said that following the city’s action, “the state legislature completely wiped out that protection by completely preempting us and saying that our ordinance was not applicable.”
After calls from Amezcua to highlight the issue at the beginning of the next regular meeting, interim City Manager Tom Hatch said last Tuesday that the needle program was “an epic failure that created heartache in our community,” adding that dirty needles were found in libraries, parking lots and around government buildings in the city.
It comes after Santa Ana officials have recently moved to crack down on public intoxication.
[Read: Santa Ana Arrested Hundreds of Intoxicated People Within a Month]
Last year, state public health officials rescinded their approval of syringe services in the county after calls were made to reconsider the program, led by OC Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento.
[Read: In Reversal, State Holds Off on Approval of Needle Exchange in Santa Ana After City Hall Objections]
Carol Newark, executive director of the Harm Reduction Institute, says there is a need for syringe services in Santa Ana.
“We are an HIV prevention agency – so we have to go where the need is highest and it is in Santa Ana, whether the city council and the rest of city government is willing to acknowledge that,” Newark said in a phone interview.
Newark said city officials have yet to speak publicly about poor practices during the program’s operation before discontinuing services.
“I think this is another instance of the city spinning the narrative,” Newark said.
She added that syringe programs are often scapegoated if local issues like homelessness and safety are failing to be addressed causing blame to shift towards local addicts seeking help.
“The things we get blamed for are a product of people living on the street, not the product of syringe service programs existing,” Newark said.
The Success Rate of Syringe Services in California
State public health officials say needle exchange programs across California are aimed at curbing disease and overdose among homeless people – a population where overdose is the leading cause of death.
In California, needle exchange programs “reach over 100,000 people a year via clinics, mobile vans, storefronts, health departments, churches, encampment outreach, and home delivery,” said Rebecca Wass, spokesperson for the California Department of Public Health, in an email to Voice of OC.
The department added that people are often reluctant to seek services because of the stigma around homelessness or substance abuse, lack of transportation, and inconvenient clinic operating hours, among other reasons.
“Syringe Service Programs act as a bridge to other safety net services by actively supporting engagement with treatment programs, HIV and [Hepatitis C]V testing, housing services, case management, behavioral health and medical services, and other supports,” reads the email from the California Public Health Department.
Orange County has the fifth-highest HIV transmission rate in the state, based on a 2022 surveillance report from the state health department.
Additionally in a survey of 1,500 people who accessed services provided by a syringe program, 54% reported having used naloxone to reverse an overdose, while 95% percent of those who reversed an overdose reported receiving their naloxone from a program, according to the department.
As of January, there are 78 needle programs within the state offering services in 35 of California’s 58 counties, the department email added.
Needle Exchange Programs In The Past
Former City Manager Kristine Ridge and Police Chief David Valentin said in a statement last May that the program failed to properly collect and dispose of needles “resulting in thousands of used hypodermic needles being discarded in or on the adjacent public buildings, libraries, streets, sidewalks, parks, and waterways both in Santa Ana and elsewhere in Orange County.”
A report by the California AIDS/HIV Policy Center on the discontinued syringe service program released last August found that the program from 2016 to 2018 distributed around 2.6 million needles while collecting over 2.3 million, translating to a roughly 90% return rate.
In a survey, clients of the program said they no longer had access to sterile syringes following its closure. A majority reported income below the poverty line or had unstable living conditions.
Additionally, respondents reported pharmacists denying to sell them syringes based on their appearance, despite a state law requiring pharmacies to sell syringes.
The AIDS/HIV Policy Center report also said evidence from a variety of settings, including a 20-city study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employing data from its National HIV Behavioral Surveillance System, demonstrated that needle programs across the state “are associated with reductions in publicly-discarded syringes.”
While acknowledging public perceptions of syringe use, Newark said that people who use drugs still deserve access to services.
“In the last two years, we’ve saved over 1,300 people from overdosing. And that’s what we could do if people just let us be.”
Newark’s nonprofit has once again applied to run a needle exchange program, but according to the city website, they must consult first with the Santa Ana police department and other “affected stakeholders.”
“I think the city is very much at risk for an HIV outbreak among people using drugs and people on the street,” Newark said. “It would be shameful to fight an HIV prevention service so hard.”
Hugo Rios is a Voice of OC intern. Contact him at hugo.toni.rios@gmail.com or on Twitter @hugoriosss