Group petitions against Harm Reduction Coalition’s efforts
SANTA CRUZ >> A community group has filed a formal complaint and a pending lawsuit against the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County, a local needle exchange program.
It’s no secret that Santa Cruz is dealing with a homelessness crisis, and with that brings an issue with illegal drug usesaid. Needle exchange programs like the Harm Reduction Coalition aim to address this issue and reduce the spread of deadly diseases like HIV and Hepatitis C that spread through the use of shared hypodermic needles.
Harm Reduction Coalition mitigates the use of dirty needles by providing a service for people to come and exchange their old needles for clean ones. The county provides the same services, but with limitations.
The county’s needle exchange program runs at two fixed sites at 1060 Emeline Ave. in Santa Cruz and 1430 Freedom Blvd. in Watsonville. The county also only offers a one-for- one needle exchange, which means participants can only receive one needle for every needle they bring in up to 300.
Conversely, the Harm Reduction Coalition operates from a mobile facility. It is able to cater to users wherever they may be.
This is the more effective method to mitigate the use of dirty and shared needles, said former UC Santa Cruz professor and drug addiction expert Craig Reinarman. More often than not, people afflicted by drug addiction, especially those that are homeless, do not have a way to travel to fixed needle exchange sites, resulting in further use of dirty needles and the spread of disease.
T he Harm Reduction Coalition also does not limit the number of needles someone can pick up.
In fact, participants aren’t even required to bring dirty needles to exchange.
“The more needles you have out there the less deadly disease will spread around,” Reinarman said. “You’re playing a probabilities game. We’re talking about reducing the harm. A five percent reduction in these diseases is a major public health gain.”
A sma l l c ommu n it y group, known as Grant Park Neighborhood Association Advocates, consists of a local registered nurse Melissa Freebairn, former Santa Cruz Police Chief Kevin Vogel and Santa Cruz City Councilwoman Renee Golder. They are joined by Johnny Font, who stepped on a discarded needle at Cowell’s Beach in 2014.
The group made a multitude of claims against the
Harm Reduction Coalition. Spanning from risks to public health to the exploitation of loopholes in county syringe service program policies to begin operation.
“The lawsuit is about something a little bit more focused on the State of California and California Department of Public Health authorization of local programs to create a duplicate syringe exchange program here in Santa Cruz County,” said David Terrazas, the lawyer representing the Grant Park group. “It’s about protecting neighborhoods and protecting the environmental health of public spaces.”
The Grant Park group documented the finding of 3,904 discarded needles across the county between March and August. However, the Harm Reduction Coalition refutes the claim that the discarded needles are a direct impact of its operation.
“There is zero evidence that syringe programs increase syringe litter,” said Harm Reduction Coalition Organizer Dani Drysdale. “However, there are multi
Harm Reduction Coalition mitigates the use of dirty needles by providing a service for people to come and exchange their old needles for clean ones. The county provides the same services, but with limitations.
ple studies that show syringe programs like ours reduce syringe litter and have a positive impact.”
In 2019, the Harm Reduction Coalition disposed of more than 140,500 dirty needles, according to Drysdale. In fact, both programs dispose of more than 100,000 needles each year and areas without needle exchange programs see a higher level of needle litter, Drysdale added.
Reinarman backed Drysdale’s claims. Reinarman has roughly 40 years of expertise on the topic and saw how drug addiction is handled in other countries around the world.
“It worked remarkably well,” Reinarman said about safe injection sites and needle exchange programs in Amsterdam. “It was not a burden on the neighborhood. If anything, fewer needles were laying around.”
A nother one of the claims from the Grant Park group is the Harm Reduction Coalition directly undermines the county’s needle exchange program. Over the last four years, the county has seen a steady decline in the number of people that use its service, according to a county report.
In 2017, the county’s needle exchange program was used by 219 different people, according to the report. That number dropped to 170 the following year, around the same time the Harm Reduction Coalition came to Santa Cruz County. The number of county participants has dropped to 118 people in 2020.
However, Drysdale believes the Harm Reduction Coalition isn’t undermining the county’s program. In fact, the state- sanctioned needle exchange program is working in conjunction with the county’s program. The two programs rely on each other to serve the community, Drysdale said.
“We work with them very closely,” he said. “It’s a very absurd claim. It’s something we’ve been pushed on a lot by this specific group of people. This is not a claim coming from the county syringe program.”
While the Harm Reduction Coalition and the county needle exchange program may be working in conjunction with one another, there are discrepancies on whether the organization should be allowed to operate within Santa Cruz County.
The Harm Reduction Coalition has also garnered support from scores of people across California. Many medical professionals, including retired county health officer Arnold Leff stand behind the coalition. It gained support from current city council members Sandy Brown and Justin Cummings.
The Harm Reduction Coalition received support from the California Department of Public Health but also faces public opposition from local law enforcement and the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors.
Police Chiefs Dav id Honda, Watsonville, Terry McManus, Capitola, and Andy Mills, Santa Cruz, submitted letters of opposition to the organization. The coalition also received opposition from the city of Scotts Valley.
“This work is really about ensuring that we have a viable county syringe exchange program to protect the health and well- being of those that suffer from the disease of addiction and have the opportunity to the referral to rehabilitation,” Terrazas said.
Drysdale remains skeptical of the Grant Park group’s motives, especially during a global pandemic.
“Little bit of a weird timing I think,” Drysdale said. “We are in the midst of the worst part of the COVID-19 pandemic we’ve experienced so far. I think it’s really dangerous to have our public health institutions tied up.”
The Harm Reduction Coalition has been using some of its resources to educate the homeless population on the COVID-19 pandemic. The state also uses needle exchange pro. grams as a large outlet to distribute personal protective equipment to keep homeless populations safe, according to Drysdale.
“( The) California Department of Public Health has been using us as syringe service programs as one of their big outlets to get PPE out,” Drysdale said. “( The lawsuit) is frankly a waste of our time and not how any of us should be spending our time during the COVID pandemic.”