SOUTH JERSEY

NJ needle exchange programs out of supplies

John C. Ensslin
Gannett New Jersey
Nicole Engel, prevention program manager at Well of Hope in Paterson, which is out of needles.

The addicts who knocked on the metal door at the Well of Hope’s needle exchange program in Paterson looking for a clean syringe have walked away empty-handed this summer.

They can still get a shower, drug counseling and other services from the nonprofit. But two months have passed since the Well of Hope’s supply of clean needles ran dry.

“The minute you give out a syringe, you’re preventing something,” said Jerome King, Well of Hope’s executive director.

Last year, the program, which began in 2008, distributed nearly 150,000 clean needles, King said, making it one of the center’s most successful efforts.

“It’s been a great way to get treatment to a lot of individuals,” King added. “The halt in services is going to have dire consequences.”

All five of the needle exchange programs in New Jersey report they are distributing fewer clean needles this year as funding for the service has grown scarce.

Last year, the centers in Camden, Atlantic City, Paterson, Jersey City and Newark distributed just over 1 million needles. By contrast, in the first six months of 2016 they have given out 314,931, less than a third of last year’s total. If that rate continues, the number of needles distributed by the end of 2016 will have dropped by 38 percent.

And that decrease is likely to grow sharper. Tom Billet, financial manager of the needle exchange program in Camden, said needles are expected to run out there by the end of the summer.

Billet said private foundations have grown reluctant to continue funding the program unless the state starts to contribute to the needle programs.

Tammy Johnson, a 52-year-old Paterson resident, said she was grateful for the needle exchange during the two years that she used it before getting help for her heroin addiction.

“It was a big help. I didn’t have to run around looking for needles,” she said. “It saves people’s lives.”

Needle exchange funds in New Jersey have so far relied on a mix of federal grants and private donations. No state tax dollars have gone to the programs.

The Well of Hope in Paterson had been relying upon grants from several foundations, the most recent of which was the MAC Aids Fund, which contributed $25,000 to the needle exchange program, a small part of Well of Hope’s overall $650,000 operating budget.

Federal grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — which had totaled as much as $150,000 for the five New Jersey centers in 2012 – dried up after Congress reinstated a ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs.

In the Legislature, Democratic lawmakers tried to come to their rescue this year by including $95,000 for the needle exchanges in the budget approved in June. But Gov. Chris Christie cut that spending in a line-item veto.

Meanwhile, advocates for the needle exchange have pinned their hopes on a bill that the Democratic-controlled Legislature sent to Christie’s desk last month. That measure would allow any municipality to host a needle exchange program, thus potentially expanding the number of centers. It does not, however, provide any funds for that effort.

Originally, the bill called for spending $95,000 on the needle exchanges, but Sen. Joseph Vitale, the bill’s co-sponsor, said he later took that item out.

“I knew that if that was part of the bill, there was a chance that the governor would have vetoed it, but I at least wanted to get the exchange programs expanded,” Vitale, D-Middlesex, said.

Christie spokesman Brian Murray declined to comment on the bill. As for the line-item cut, Murray noted it was part of a larger set of Democratic spending items that Christie trimmed.

Christie made addiction recovery services a centerpiece of his State of the State speech this year. When asked about the administration’s view on needle exchanges, Murray pointed to Christie’s 2012 conditional veto of another needle bill.

That measure allowed pharmacies to sell up to 10 syringes to people without a doctor’s prescription. Christie commended lawmakers for trying to reduce injection-related diseases but required several revisions, including a mandatory photo ID with proof of age for people buying needles.

Lawmakers accepted Christie’s changes and the bill became law. As a result, a 10-pack of plastic syringes at a local pharmacy sells for about $3 without a prescription. Well of Hope officials say they spend about 8 cents per needle for the syringes they distribute for free.

The state Health Department issued a report in 2012 that recommended continuing the needle exchange programs subject to available funding.

“The demonstration program has served a hard-to-reach and at-risk population,” while reducing their chance on contracting bloodborne diseases, the report said.

The report also said the availability of safe and clean needles is important for women of child-bearing age. The Health Department reported 354 HIV-infected babies were born in New Jersey from 1993 to 1999, whereas there were two infected babies born in the state in 2011. Each prevented case of HIV saves the state lifetime treatment costs of about $600,000, the report stated.

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The people who run the needle exchange programs say they also have provided a way to convince addicts to seek drug rehabilitation programs.

“I meet them where they are at,” said Nicole Engle, prevention program manager for Well of Hope’s needle exchange, which is called Point of Hope. She said the center’s non-judgmental approach is a key part of that effort.

“It’s not my place to say ‘What you’re doing is wrong. You should stop. Why don’t you go to detox? Why don’t you leave Paterson?’” Engle added. “That’s not my place.”

But once they are ready for treatment, the program is there, she said and that happens quite often.

Edker McNair, a 52-year-old Paterson native who also has used the needle exchange, said he is grateful for the program.

“Right now, I’m not infected and I thank God,” McNair said. “I’m not happy that I do it, but this is how I’ve done it and this is what I do.

“I do my best and I pray and I do believe it’s going to get better.”

At a glance

In 2015, there were 178,892 needles exchanged in Camden through the HARM Reduction Syringe Access Program. In the first half of 2016, 53,292 needles were exchanged.