CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — It’s been nearly one year since Harrison County enacted its harm reduction program, and while it’s been successful thus far, officials admit they share the complications discussed in Charleston.
Charleston City Council delayed a vote to end their harm reduction program, as the city has greatly experienced an excess of needles left around the community.
“We do have that problem,” said Chad Bundy, administrator of the Harrison-Clarksburg Health Department. “We have needles in the public and it’s a problem, and we’re working together (with law enforcement) to try to solve it. Those folks have been kind enough that when they receive those calls, they pick up those needles and discard them as well.”
However, it’s hard to blame that on the harm reduction program itself, as the average 40 to 60 patients that come to the clinic each Thursday must return their old syringes in order to obtain new ones.
“In the approximately 11 months that we’ve operated the program, we have received thousands and thousands of used or dirty syringes, and they’ve been disposed of properly, of course,” Bundy said.
Bundy instead believes that spike in syringes within the community is due to a rising number of addicted persons.
“We’re obviously in an opioid epidemic,” he said. “I don’t know that we have reached our maximum number of users, I hope so, but there are a great number in the Harrison County community and that’s what this program is trying to serve.”
The harm reduction program, often referred to as “needle exchange,” does more than simply provide clean syringes to intravenous drug users. The program also encourages counseling and referrals for those who want to seek treatment for their addiction.
“Each person that comes through, we encourage them to take our Naloxone training and provide them with Naloxone,” Bundy said. “In case they would have an overdose, they would have that life-saving ability right there with each and every patient if we can.”
The health department also provides testing for Hepatitis and other diseases that intravenous drug users are at risk for.
“Your health department got involved in this primarily because we had escalating rates of Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C in this community and HIV, in some cases, for the first time,” Bundy said. “Really when you take a look at that issue, clean syringes give these people an opportunity to make safer choices before it affects the community as a whole.”