Needle-trade measure dies in Legislature
A bill that could have brought needle exchanges out of Arizona’s shadows quietly died last week in the state Legislature.
House Bill 2389 — which sailed through the House with bipartisan support before being watered down in the Senate — stalled last month and was never scheduled to be heard by a conference committee. That means the two chambers were never able to reconcile their differences. The Sen-
ate’s amended version could have been more restrictive when dealing with syringe-access programs.
The clock ran out late last week with the end of the legislative session, derailing the effort that experts nationally have said helps prevent diseases spread, introduces drug users to treatment and distributes overdose-reversing naloxone to those who need it most.
The writing had been on the wall since mid-April.
Now, some of the bill’s supporters blame election-year politics and tough-on-crime talking points for Arizona remaining among the minority of states that does not legally sanction safe needle-exchange programs.
“If we had been more proactive around harm-reduction five years ago, think of all the people who died who could have survived,” said Haley Coles executive director of Sonoran Prevention Works. “Those people are gone because our state has continued to politicize public-health practices.”
The bill, introduced by Rep. Tony Rivero, R-Peoria, passed unanimously out of the state House in February. It would have legalized needle-exchange programs if the goal was to reduce the spread of disease, minimize needle pricks to law-enforcement officers and encourage people to enroll in treatment programs.
The programs also would have had to provide used-needle disposal and education on overdose prevention as well as naloxone access and mental-illness treatment.
While the House version would have allowed for the ongoing operation of such programs, the Senate’s amendment mandated state health officials first declare a public health emergency to address “a possible outbreak of an infectious disease that is being spread by the sharing of needles.”
Only after a needle-driven disease outbreak would syringe-access programs be authorized in the county or municipality where the emergency is unfolding, according to the amendment.
Rather than operate in a gray area, the legislation would have spelled out that existing programs are illegal.
Rivero and other supporters had hoped to iron out differences and issues with the bill. But amid a flurry of activity at the Capitol in the final days of the legislative session, that process never saw the light of day before last week’s adjournment. “I suspect there was more politics than meets the eye,” Rivero told The Arizona Republic on Monday, adding that he was “disappointed” and “shocked” about how quickly the momentum ended.
“It was a surprise to me because we had unanimous support form the entire House.”
More than 7,400 suspected opioid overdoses have been reported across the state to the Arizona Department of Health Services since enhanced monitoring began in June. According to the latest data, 1,176 people died of a suspected opioid overdose in that time — about four per day, on average.
Organizations like Phoenix-area Shot in the Dark, which has operated under the radar since 2011, aren’t banned outright under existing Arizona law. But prosecutors have said they technically could crack down on the law violation pertaining to distribution of drug paraphernalia.
According to 2017 program statistics, Shot in the Dark tallied 51,000 participant contacts, distributed almost 1.5 million syringes in 2017 and handed out about 14,700 doses of the overdose-reversal drug naloxone — free to participants through a network of private donations.
While Phoenix police have not cracked down on the program — research shows many in law enforcement support such programs — a longstanding stigma has hindered volunteer efforts to set up on street corners and in parking lots. Volunteers are routinely shooed away from private parking lots and confronted by police after property owners call to complain.
The bill is dead, but the effort isn’t over.
Rivero says that if he is re-elected in November, he plans to introduce the same legislation on day one of the next session, ensuring it is “at the top of the priority list.”
Syringe exchanges — some sanctioned by local governments, others more on the legal fringes — continue to spring up across Arizona. Some are more underground than others, and they join a national consortium of more than 300 needle-exchange programs known to be operating in scores of counties amid the opioid epidemic.
Supporters are optimistic that the next session will be more productive.
“Hopefully next year, when it’s not an election year, things will be less political and we’ll be able to make some progress,” Coles said. “I think we just do the same thing we did this year. There is more local support than ever before.”