The Portland City Council on Monday night swiftly shot down a proposal by Mayor Mark Dion to reduce the rate of the city’s needle exchange program to a one-to-one basis.

The proposal failed in a 7-1 vote with all councilors voting against it except for Dion.

He announced his intention to try and scale back the program in an op-ed published in the Portland Press Herald last month. Since then, several councilors said they would not support the proposal because of the public health risks it could pose, but Dion went ahead and tried to pass the resolution.

He spoke briefly in favor of his proposal at the close of the public comment period.

“When people say they go outside and they crunch needles, it’s an issue. They fear for themselves, they fear for their kids and even their pets,” he said.

He went on to argue that the city’s needle exchange operated on a one-to-one needle exchange ratio for twenty years before increasing the ratio in 2021.

“It seemed to work,” he said.

Council discussions were brief, with only Councilors Anna Bullett, April Fournier and Anna Trevorrow speaking about their opposition to the proposal.

Bullett, as she has done at previous meetings, spoke about the root cause of the opioid epidemic.

“This is the devastating result of a large-scale crime by pharmaceutical companies and people like the Sackler family. People who inject drugs are as much a part of our community as people who own buildings, and the entire community is the victim of a crime,” she said.

NEEDLE BUYBACK PROGRAM

The council also voted unanimously Monday night to start a pilot needle buyback program to be paid for with opioid settlement funds. The proposal was brought forth by Fournier, who chairs the Health, Human Services and Public Safety committee.

The program will pay people 5 cents per used syringe they return to the city, with a cap of $10 per person per day, in an effort to address needle litter in the city by incentivizing people to return dirty needles.

In addition to the buyback program, the money will be used to establish a methadone clinic and a day space where homeless people who aren’t staying in a shelter can stay warm and access laundry, showers, food and other services.

The combined cost of implementing all three programs for one year will be $1.38 million, all of which will come from opioid resettlement money, meaning it will not cost taxpayers anything.

Dena Libner, assistant city manager, told the council that the city will likely receive at least $1 million more in opioid funds in the coming years. However, she said all three programs won’t be able to be sustained in perpetuity with opioid settlement funds alone, so city staff is hopeful that they can partner with local providers to continue the programs after their first year.

PUBLIC COMMENT

Public comment on the resolution to reduce the needle exchange rate lasted over an hour. Doctors, nurses and social service providers in the city spoke out against that proposal, saying it could create a public health crisis by forcing drug users to use dirty needles, potentially resulting in the spread of blood-borne diseases like hepatitis C and AIDS.

Dr. Kevin Sullivan, the medical director of Greater Portland Health’s health care for the homeless program, spoke against the proposal.

“There are too many needles on the streets of Portland, and that needs to change,” he said. “But that does not need to come at the cost of a public health crisis.”

He went on to say that people struggling with substance use disorder will continue to use whether or not they have access to clean needles.

“By limiting it to a one-to-one exchange, you’re limiting the number of needles on the street but increasing the risk of infection.”

Anna Knudsen also spoke against the proposal.

“We’re only as healthy as our sickest community member,” she said.

“People are not shooting up because they have access to needles, they’re shooting up to cope with being a complete outcast from society,” she said.

Ryan Connor, a nurse, also spoke out against the proposal, calling it, “Reckless, heartless and downright dangerous.”

He said the proposal addresses a pollution problem by creating a public health crisis.

In 2021, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that Maine had the second highest rate of transmission for hepatitis C in the nation. The agency classifies comprehensive needle exchange programs as extremely effective.

“Nearly 30 years of research has shown that comprehensive (needle exchange programs) are safe, effective, and cost-saving, do not increase illegal drug use or crime, and play an important role in reducing the transmission of viral hepatitis, HIV and other infections,” the agency’s website reads.

A handful of people, including Kathleen Finn, spoke in favor of the proposal on Monday night.

“Would you buy cartons of cigarettes for someone trying to quit smoking? Would you buy a fifth of vodka for an alcoholic? No, because it doesn’t make any sense and is, frankly, cruel,” she said. “How can anyone say with a straight face that giving a heroin addict 100 needles and sending them off into the world is a good thing?”

Bill Linnell, who ran for an at-large City Council seat last year, spoke in favor of the proposal too.

“Every time they shoot up, they risk death, and I just think we ought to draw the line at one-to-one,” he said.

The city has run a needle exchange program since 1998, giving clean syringes to anyone who returns used ones for safe disposal. It’s a harm-reduction tactic that is proven to mitigate the spread of infections like hepatitis C and HIV because people are less likely to reuse or share needles.

For decades, Portland had a one-for-one exchange policy in accordance with state law. That meant someone could only get as many clean syringes as used ones they turned in. The governor temporarily loosened those restrictions during the pandemic, but Portland was one of the final cities to opt-in. The state law changed permanently in 2022, allowing needle exchange programs to give out as many as 100 clean needles at a time.

According to data provided by the city, the program handed out 786,000 clean syringes to 2,329 people between Nov. 1, 2022, and Oct. 31, 2023, a rate of less than one needle per person per day. The city collected 537,000 discarded syringes in that period.

Copy the Story Link