Your recent praise of Yolo County is appropriate, but not for our needle "exchange" program.
When we recently evaluated this program, we were provided with some startling figures. While The Bee may support the concept of a needle exchange program, I couldn't support the program in Yolo County based on the information provided in the evaluation.
Here is what we know. A year ago, Yolo County invested $100,000 in a needle exchange program with the goal of reducing disease transmission and keeping dirty needles off the streets. More than 61,000 needles were passed out to about 150 people participating in this program. That is an average of more than 400 needles per participant. Shockingly, 11,253 of those needles were not returned.
Despite my objections to using taxpayer dollars to help facilitate people injecting poison into their bodies, my main concern is the "exchange" of needles and their disposal. An "exchange" would lead the reader to believe that if you bring in one dirty needle, you get one clean one. Not so. Our vendors will give a "customer" up to 10 needles for just one dirty one. This policy provides little incentive for drug users to safely dispose of dirty needles. If needles were exchanged 1-to-1, perhaps Yolo County wouldn't be responsible for 11,253 additional dirty needles on the street.
I'll concede that needle exchange programs may decrease the risk of hepatitis C and HIV transmission among intravenous drug users. However, the consequence of our flawed program is an increased risk to pets, children or anyone who may come into contact with one of our unaccounted-for needles.
The needle exchange program prioritizes the "safety" of 150 people who choose to inject illegal drugs, while imposing a greater risk to law-abiding citizens in Yolo County. That's $100,000 of taxpayer money spent supporting the drug habit of 150 people. I believe there is a wiser alternative. Spending this money on drug counseling, youth dental care or cleaning up our parks would be a better use of the public resources.
While Yolo County has much to be proud of, we should not claim the needle exchange program as a success.
Matt Rexroad is a member of the Yolo County Board of Supervisors. He wrote this article in response to an Aug. 12 editorial, "Yolo leads on needle exchange."
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