APB Archives

NEEDLE EXCHANGE (PT I) (Mar 18, 02)

INTRODUCTION (No date)

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The Needle Exchange pages are made up of: 1) this introduction; 2) “NEEDLE EXCHANGE PT I" below, an assembly of old information that has not been on our website before, and 3) “NEEDLE EXCHANGE PT II; PT III; and PT IV" which are pages taken from the old CHAPC website and re-posted on the site. Together they make as complete and accurate a history as I can devise.
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NEEDLE EXCHANGE (PT I) (Mar 18, 02)

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Needle exchange actually began on January 1, 2000 when a state law (AB136) was passed to decriminalize needle exchange programs operated by public entities, if the jurisdiction had declared a state of health emergency. Needle exchange began in San Diego in mid-2000 when Alliance Healthcare Foundation and past councilmember Valerie Stallings talked about a program in. On October 16, 2000 the manager recommended that Council declare an emergency, which the council did and continued to do every two weeks, as the law requires. The Council directed the manager to develop and implement a one-year program and to convene a task force to write procedures to be used in the program. The manager reported that he would contact the other cities and the county, to invite them to participate. He did, but got no replies to his letters.
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In assembling the task force, the manager consulted ONLY members of the health care industry. No effort was made (or ever contemplated) to discuss needle exchange with any community(ies). The Foundation claims it hired The Monger Company, a local propaganda agency, to “manage the public education campaign."
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[Note:I did not see any outreach materials or meet anyone who had seen any outreach materials; or see or hear from a Monger representative, or met anyone who had seen or heard from a Monger representative prior to March 18, 2002. That's an important date in the needle exchange story.]
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On November 17, 2000 the manager presented an information item to the Council reporting the names and affiliations of the Task Force members. All were either healthcare industry people or senior city staff, including police. No community people were assigned. The Task Force met monthly or so, and on June 12, 2001 issued its report. The report made six recommendations: 1) declare a state of emergency; 2) run a privately funded one-year pilot program of needle exchange; 3) impose nine mandatory elements that the program should include; 4) use external evaluators to determine the effectiveness of the program; 5) on police recommendation (but no other recommendation), choose two areas where drug use levels are high enough to warrant a program; and 6) establish cooperative relationships between the police and the program staff. Nothing in the Task Force report mentions (or cares about) opinions or recommendations of the host communities or cooperation with them or their leadership.
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Between June 12 and November 27, 2001 the needle exchange program was readied for presentation to the Council although no contact whatever was made with any community in San Diego in respect to the program. I began hearing about it around Hallowe'en, 2001 and began asking the councilmember's staff to explain it to me. I made several such requests to council staff, which were met with stalling, evasion, and on two occasions, outright lies about the program. The Council's health emergency declarations were put on the consent calendar, and they were approved 5-4. I didn't know about them until later in 2001.
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Woven between my requests to council staff were phone calls to my friends-in-low-places. I got the straight word about the program from them, including the Community Service Division's tilt in favor of the program. Although I was getting the straight dope from my sources, I was still unable to get straight word from the council staff. On March 18, 2002, when Council was to renew the emergency declaration, I went to the Council meeting, handed in a speaker slip, and made the speech that forced the entire program out into the open for all to see.
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[Please see Needle Exchange Pt II, III, and IV]