San Antonio's Bexar County will be the first county in Texas to have a needle exchange program. The pilot program, approved June 13, is designed to stop the spread of communicable diseases, such as HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis B and C, by exchanging one clean needle for every dirty one. Texas is the last state to adopt a program of this kind.
"Clean needles are donated by pharmaceutical companies, and few state resources will be used," said State Rep. Solomon Ortiz Jr., D-Corpus Christi. "Our whole goal here is to get dirty needles off the street."
Ortiz filed House Bill 1846, which would have permitted a statewide needle exchange program, but it did not pass.
This prompted State Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, to author an amendment to Senate Bill 10, a Medicare-related bill. The amendment passed and authorized the pilot program in Bexar County Wednesday.
Bexar County was chosen as the site for the needle exchange program, because there is enough support within the county, said Janis Reinken, McClendon's chief of staff. When it didn't pass at the state level, they had to scale back.
"Next session, we hope to push legislation to expand the program statewide," Ortiz said. "Nobody thought it would pass, but the Senate's already shown huge support."
Because the decision was recently made, details for the location of the exchange, the estimated costs and the number of people the exchange plans to serve remain undetermined. It has not been decided whether non-Bexar residents will be able to use the program, either.
Originally people were against the program, because they thought it would encourage drug use, said Bexar County Sheriff Ralph Lopez.
"Persons with needles on them has always been an issue for officers," Lopez said. "We have a paranoia when patting down persons, so we have to ask if you have illegal drugs, illegal substances or needles on you."
There's a lot of needle exchange between "homies," Lopez said, noting that the program is important for officer safety.
"I nearly came into contact with a used needle when I patted down a person," he said. "I thought I was touching a roll of breath mints or a Tootsie Roll so I asked if there was a needle on this person. He said he had a syringe with no needle."
Be the first to comment on this article!