PUEBLO, Colo. — City officials in Pueblo met on Monday to discuss an ordinance that would prohibit the exchange of syringes in Pueblo's city limits.
After deliberating through the night, the majority of the council voted in favor of banning the needle exchange program in the city.
Some Pueblo city council members said they're seeing an increase of dirty or used needles in public parks and trails.
They believe programs that help properly dispose of them are not working so they need to find another solution.
"Maybe there'll be less needles, I guess we won't know until we find out, but so far it's been a complaint and no one has done anything," said Councilwoman Regina Maestri.
Cynthia Robinson who is experiencing homelessness, said it's because of these programs, parks are a lot safer.
"If we didn't have this program, I think you would see a lot more needles everywhere," said Robinson.
Access Point's program allows people to drop off used needles for proper disposal and get clean ones.
"The constituency is having a hard time believing that someone is shooting up and properly disposing of their needle and that is what the programs are meant for," said Maestri.
In the last 9 months, Access Point reports about 56% of needles it hands out are returned to the office or at one of the kiosks around town.
"We do have fear that things can get a lot of worse and we are fearful for infectious disease rates spreading and what that can look like for our community and accessing care and treatment," said Access Point's behavioral health manager, Tori Cervi.
Robinson gives out clean syringes she gets for free at Access Point.
"I have friends that do, family so I always try to get clean equipment, it's always a helpful thing to get people out there with clean stuff," said Robinson.
City officials believe the improper disposal of these items increases threats to the public's health, property, safety, and welfare.
Pueblo has two different syringe access programs one run through Access Point Pueblo, and the other through the Colorado Harm Reduction Association. What both of these organizations use is an anonymous program that offers unused clean syringes and other injection equipment for free to those who inject substances.
No photo ID is required when exchanging.
The program was created to help reduce infections such as HIV, HCV, and many others as well as help prevent deaths by overdosing.
Some of the services that access sites offer are syringe and injection equipment, overdose prevention, safe injection education, safe disposal for the community, prevention case management, and referrals to other local resources.
The sites also offer different forms of equipment like syringes, sharps containers, tourniquets, sterile water, first aid supplies, safer snorting and smoking kits, and hygiene items.
The needle and syringe exchange programs have been operating in Pueblo since 2014 and 2017, but resources can be found Colorado-wide as there are programs in Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Denver, Greeley, and Grand Junction.
There are also more than 300 syringe exchange programs located nationally, with some states having none, and others as high as 23.
KOAA New5's Lindsey Jensen is on the beat for more about this story.
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