Board of Supervisors to vote on expanding hours of Syringe Services Program in Santa Cruz County
UPDATED 6/11/2019 6:00 p.m.: Santa Cruz County will start a 90-day pilot program to possibly expand the county’s syringe services program.
As part of the pilot program, which will be run by the Health Services Agency, marked syringes will be used to let the county know how many needles from the SSP are part of the needle waste problem.
The agency is also being directed by the Board of Supervisors to formally ask cities to install needle collection kiosks.
Needle exchange has been highly debated and opposed by several local law enforcement agencies and community members.
There were many at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting in favor of expansion.
“I am in full support of the county taking this program back and stopping secondary exchange by people who are not trained,” said Santa Cruz resident and nurse Melissa Freebairn, “They cannot link people to services, they have zero data to support they can help anybody.”
After the pilot program, the Health Services Agency will go back before the Board of Supervisors September 24th.
They’ll discuss hours of the syringe services program and reducing third party distribution of needles.
PREVIOUS STORY: Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on whether to expand the hours for the county’s controversial Syringe Services Program.
The county says the goal of the program is to protect and promote “residents’ health and safety by preventing the spread of infectious diseases associated with injection drug use.”
The total cost of the program March 2017 through Februrary 2019 was $220,521. The next annual expenditure is estimated to be $240,000. They say the increase would be because of increased staff time, increased distribution and increased collection efforts.
The recommendations by the county are for the Health Services Agency, which runs the program, to expand the program’s hours from 10 to 20 a week at the Emeline Campus and Watsonville Health Center as staffing resources become available.
The program has been highly debated and opposed by several local law enforcement agencies and community members.
KION’S Ashley Keehn will have more on the decision at 5 p.m and 6 p.m.
