Two million dirty syringes have been taken from drug addicts since the clean syringe exchange program started in 2001, said the city’s emergency medical services director to a City Council committee.
“Can you imagine that we have actually eliminated 2.1 million syringes that were dirty? Can you imagine how high that pile would be?” asked Dr. James Dunford during his annual report to the Public Safety & Neighborhood Services Committee.
“We make sure those syringes don’t end up on the beach, in the parks, on the playgrounds,” said Ben Avey, who works for Family Health Centers which administers the program.
“Frightening,” remarked Councilmember Lorie Zapf about the numbers and location where needles are found.
The city program operates out of a mobile unit and offers addicts with a program ID card up to 30 clean needles if they also exchange dirty needles safely.
The mobile unit is open for three hours on Thursday nights and three hours on Friday morning. The two locations are downtown and North Park. Avey said addicts learn where the unit is collecting needles via “word on the street.”
One of the program’s purposes is public safety so police officers, paramedics and others are not accidently punctured with a dirty needle while doing their jobs. Another purpose is to decrease the spread of AIDS and Hepatitis C. San Diego has the third highest rate of AIDS in the state.
Sharing dirty needles with others contributes to the spread of both diseases. Dunford said there are approximately 400 new cases of AIDS and 2,000 new diagnoses of Hepatitis C in San Diego each year. Sharing dirty needles is the number one cause of getting Hepatitis C and it is the second leading cause of HIV transmission.
“If you provide a venue where people can exchange dirty needles, you can also use the moment as a teaching moment, and also an opportunity to try and direct people toward drug treatment counseling and other resources they would likely need,” said Dunford.
“Our goal is to reduce the amount of harm someone is going to do to themselves through the use of injection drugs until such time as we can break the cycle of addiction,” said Avey.
“We’ve taken in more syringes than we distribute. A lot of times people have syringes after people pass away,” said Dunford. “They don’t know what to do and this is a safe refuge for anybody.”
“I think it’s really honorable the City Council has chosen to do this. The problem we’re treating doesn’t stop at city limits,” said Dunford.
The committee, chaired by Councilmember Marti Emerald, heard the report with its statistics on Oct. 9. Emerald said she writes a letter every year to the County Board of Supervisors and asks them to get involved with this program.
Key statistics in 2013 report:
• 569 new client visits
• 10,666 repeat client visits
• 11,246 total referrals to drug treatment, detoxification services, mental health, hospitals (44,972 total referrals since 2001)
• 75 percent of clients are male; 24 percent female; 1 percent transgender
• 36 median age
• 66 percent never married; 9 percent married
• 73 percent unemployed
• 23 percent homeless, with 27 percent staying temporarily with someone
• 73 percent white
