Nonprofit proposes needle exchange program in Carrick
A proposal to bring a needle exchange program to Carrick drew no firm opposition at a meeting of the neighborhood’s block watch Monday night, though some residents said they were impatient about slow progress in addressing the opioid epidemic.
“What I’m hearing in the room tonight is that the community is willing to give us a chance to help some people out down here, and we’re proud to be doing that,” Aaron Arnold, executive director of Prevention Point Pittsburgh, said at the end of more than an hour of discussion of the service he hopes to bring to the south Pittsburgh neighborhood.
About 50 people attended the monthly meeting of the Carrick Overbrook Block Watch, held at the Birmingham United Church of Christ.
“You know, I know, that Carrick has been really hard hit by this epidemic,” said Karen Hacker, director of the Allegheny County Health Department.
“We are seeing — and I am being very cautiously optimistic now — some decline in the
number of individuals who are dying” from overdoses, Dr. Hacker said, but there is grave concern about the spread of HIV, hepatitis C and other infections that can be spread through the sharing of needles.
Needle exchange advocates say that by taking dirty needles and giving out clean ones, they reduce transmission of infections. They add that many of their clients go on to recover from addiction.
Nonprofit Prevention Point has sites in East Liberty, Perry Hilltop and the Hill District, Mr. Arnold said.
“We don’t have a site that’s accessible to south Pittsburgh,” he said. He wants to bring a needle exchange van to the parking lot of Spencer United Methodist Church in Carrick on Thursday afternoons. His organization will seek the blessing of the county health board Sept. 12 and then the agreement of Pittsburgh City Council, he said.
Block watch leader Carol Anthony said some residents might worry that needle exchange will attract not just users, but dealers eager to prey upon them. Mr. Arnold said that had not happened at any of Prevention Point’s other sites. Other attendees seemed frustrated that addiction continues to plague their neighborhood.
“When are we going to start seeing some sort of results?” asked block watch leader Donna McManus. She said officials were “putting BandAids on things” in a community “that is seriously in crisis and it doesn’t seem to be coming back.”
“It’s going to take time before we start to see more results on a communitywide level,” Mr. Arnold said, “but we’re going to get there.”
Since 2008, the ZIP code 15210, which includes most of Carrick and the nearby Hilltop neighborhoods, has seen more fatal overdoses — 187 — than any other in Allegheny County. Last year, 15210 ranked third among county ZIP codes, with 32 drug deaths. ZIP codes encompassing the North Side and McKees Rocks had more fatal overdoses last year.