A new program where drug users can exchange dirty needles for clean ones will begin in Concord in July.
The New Hampshire Harm Reduction Coalition, which runs similar needle exchange programs in Manchester and Stratford County and partners with other programs around the state, will operate a site near Loudon Road where individuals can exchange syringes and receive education about preventing infection and overdoses.
Syringe programs are just one strategy of a philosophy that aims to minimize the negative consequences associated with drug use. The efforts are not intended to encourage drug use, but acknowledge that drug users can make choices that increase their own safety, even before they are able to begin treatment and recovery programs.
“We’re starting where you are ready to start,” said Lauren McGinley, executive director of the Harm Reduction Coalition. “We want to help you stay as safe as possible until you get to a place where you can access recovery and treatment.”
People without shelter make up about half of those accessing the coalition’s services at other syringe sites, McGinley said Monday during a meeting of the Concord public safety advisory board.
The coalition received a contract in September from the New Hampshire Division of Public Health Services, under the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, to prove safe syringe services in Concord beginning this summer. A steering committee with representatives from local nonprofit organizations and health providers developed a strategy for the program, which will begin operating on July 7 in a lot owned by Next Level Automotive, which has offered its space.
At the Concord site, clients can exchange used syringes for sterile ones to prevent the transmission of hepatitis C, endocarditis and HIV, which can spread through dirty needles. They can also obtain other clean materials, like cotton, that are used for injection.
Volunteers and staff members will provide education about practices to prevent deaths, like carrying overdose prevention drug naxolone and never injecting drugs alone. If participants request drug treatment or additional medical care, staff can connect them to those resources.
Although receiving treatment for substance use is not a requirement to access syringe services, research has shown new users of these programs are five times more likely to enter drug treatment. Safe syringe programs can reduce overdose deaths and the transmission of blood-borne diseases, as well as help people access drug treatment and improve public safety by getting used needles out of the community, according to research from the Centers for Disease Control.
This syringe program will help keep Concord safe by preventing overdoses and keeping dirty needles off the street, McGinley said. Getting rid of used needles, which are considered biohazards, can be difficult, and many people don’t know to dispose of them properly. No state or federal money is used for syringe disposal, which the coalition contracts out to a company called Stericyle and pays for with outside fundraising.
In the past, needle exchanges have provoked controversy over public safety and health in the communities where they are based.
City of Manchester Public Health Director Anna Thomas told Concord’s public safety advisory board on Monday that she has received complaints from residents regarding the Manchester syringe program, called Queen City Exchange. When that program first started in April 2019, the NH Harm Reduction Coalition was under different leadership and was not yet receiving funding from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Thomas explained that needle exchanges, which became legal in New Hampshire after a 2017 law, are not subject to local permitting, and local public health authorities don’t have the ability to shut them down. “You have no say in what happens with these programs. There is no oversight,” Thomas said.
Queen City Exchange was originally based in a visible area in Veterans Park, prompting calls from residents and concerns about client privacy. Other problems arose, including one volunteer who had recently overdosed was keeping containers of used syringes in a basement. “We feel very strongly that syringe services or harm reduction, should prevent harm for the individuals but not at the expense of the community,” Thomas said.
The Harm Reduction Coalition reports data quarterly to the New Hampshire Division of Public Health Services, which now funds some of the organization’s services. McGinley told the advisory board that this program has benefited from a thoughtful planning process. “Concord is so different because we had the planning, forethought and the ability to approach it in a completely different way,” she said.
Currently, people sometimes drive two or three hours to access the Manchester program, McGinley said in an interview. The isolation of the coronavirus pandemic has also increased the number of people struggling with substance abuse and therefore seeking syringe services.
When the syringe program in Concord begins, organizations will refer clients to the program for clean needles. Individuals will be able to take ten more needles than they bring in for disposal, with a maximum of 100 needles at a time due to budget limits.
“We want to keep people alive,” McGinley told the advisory board, and despite the stigma sometimes associated with harm reduction strategies, she said this program does not enable continued drug use. “Nobody has ever used drugs because they had access to syringes.”