W.Va. lawmakers considering needle exchange regulations

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A West Virginia bill that would regulate needle exchange programs is poised to gain final approval in the Republican-controlled legislature. Critics have said more stringent requirements for the programs will constrain the number of providers who give clean syringes to injection drug users not able to quit the habit altogether.

Supporters said the legislation would help those addicted to opioids get connected to health care services fighting substance abuse. Participants would also need to show an identification card to get a syringe after an amendment was made in the Senate on Saturday, which passed it 27-7 and sent it back to the House of Delegates for potential final approval.

Republican Gov. Jim Justice has not publicly commented on the bill. An email to a spokesman was not immediately returned.

Republicans backing the bill said the changes were necessary because some needle exchange programs were “operating so irresponsibly” that they were causing syringe litter.

But the new rules would take effect amid one of the nation’s highest spikes in HIV cases related to intravenous drug use. The surge, clustered primarily around the capital of Charleston and the city of Huntington, is being attributed at least in part to the cancellation in 2018 of a needle exchange program.

City leaders and first responders complained that the program in Kanawha County led to an increase in needles being left in public places and abandoned buildings, and it was shut down.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin last week submitted a congressional inquiry with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding the county’s HIV outbreak.

Manchin asked for the inquiry on behalf of the Kanawha County Commission two months after a CDC official warned that the outbreak was “the most concerning in the United States.”