Jessica Cejnar Andrews / Monday, Dec. 11, 2023 @ 11 a.m. / Community, Local Government, Oregon
Curry County Commissioners Target Needle Exchange, Harm Reduction Program Operating in Brookings
The kits HIV Alliance gives to its clients includes Naloxone, the means to reverse an opioid overdose, as well as clean needles. | Photo: Mark Oniffrey via Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons License
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A Eugene-based HIV prevention organization that offers syringe exchange and harm reduction services in Brookings was forced to suspend operations on Friday.
HIV Alliance is seeking another site to be able to serve its clients at this week, Executive Director Renee Yandel told the Wild Rivers Outpost. But the organization won’t be back at the Curry Community Resource Center at 517 Railroad until it has an agreement with the county, which owns the building, Yandel said.
“We can’t go back if the county is specifically telling us we can’t be there,” she said, adding that they serve 10 to 12 people a week. “We’ve reached out to other partners to see if we can come up with another site in the meantime because I’m concerned about what will happen for folks that don’t have access [to services]. That’s our main priority. We’re not looking to have a fight with the county.”
The Curry County Board of Commissioners, however, are bent on shutting down HIV Alliance’s safe syringe exchange site at the Curry Community Resource Center. One commissioner, Board Chairman John Herzog, threatened to “go Charles Bronson.”
On Wednesday, Commissioner Brad Alcorn, a former police officer, brandished two kits he said an anonymous individual received on a recent visit to the site. Wrapped in a Ziploc bag, the kits contained syringes, cookers, Band-Aids, alcohol wipes, a fentanyl testing kit, two glass pipes, two PVC mouth pieces, a stretch tourniquet wrap and four liquid Narcan vials.
Narcan, the brand name for Naloxone, rapidly reverses an opioid overdose.
According to Alcorn, a previous Board of Commissioners approved an ordinance in April 2022 that was never put on the county books.
He asked Director of Operations Ted Fitzgerald to bring a revised ordinance back to him and his colleagues with stronger language. Alcorn also directed Fitzgerald to “reach out to Alliance and cut this off.”
“I want to make sure the people that might be handing that stuff out are clear about what that ordinance is and I want to enforce that ordinance,” Alcorn told his colleagues.
The Curry Community Resource Center houses the county’s Veterans Services Department as well as its Juvenile Department. Alcorn said the individual he spoke with visited the HIV Alliance site out of their own concern.
Alcorn, Herzog and appointed commissioner Jay Trost also blasted Oregon Measure 110, the voter-approved Drug Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act, which made the penalty for possessing illicit drugs for personal use a Class E violation with a $100 fine or a completed health assessment.
“Instead of holding people accountable or instead of mandating a person to receive treatment, we give them a $100 ticket now. And there’s no criminal accountability for heroin, cocaine or even fentanyl,” Alcorn said. “I did some research on that. There were 6,271 tickets issued and out of that, 499 of those people called the hotline you’re supposed to call when you get the ticket. And out of that, one in 10 received any kind of treatment. That’s only 50 people. That was a year ago that those stats came out ‘cause you can’t get current stats, they don’t give you those.”
On March 16, 2022, the Board of Commissioners voted in favor of drafting an ordinance that would ban safe injection sites and supervised drug consumption facilities. Nine days prior, the Brookings City Council asked staff to draft a similar ordinance.
On May 23, 2022 the Brookings City Council approved its ordinance, which “prohibits activities detrimental to the residents and visitors in all zones of the city.” This included supervised drug consumption facilities.
HIV Alliance does not operate a safe injection site at the Curry Community Resource Center nor does it intend to, Yandel told the Outpost on Monday. The organization has offered syringe exchange and harm reduction services at the Curry Community Resource Center since 2019. While they provide HIV and Hep C testing to individuals under 18, they only offer syringe exchange services for adults, Yandel said.
In addition to giving its clients clean supplies, preventing the transmission of HIV or hepatitis C, the organization accepts used syringes to safely dispose of them and provides free HIV and hepatitis C testing.
HIV Alliance also offers referrals to drug treatment and counseling to any who ask, offering a peer who can help connect them to resources available locally, Yandel said. They can also provide clients a heads up when they see an increase in cases of needle-transmitted infections or other concerns, she said.
“It’s a really great way for us to connect to folks who are at very very high risk for HIV and HepC and who often times aren’t talking to other people in their lives or other organizations about their injection drug use because it’s so highly stigmatized,” Yandel said. “It’s discreet. We just come for a certain amount of time — it’s about two hours — and then we pack everything up and leave. No one even knows they’re there.”
Yandel said she and other organizations offering similar services will speak to a city council or board of commissioners when they raise concerns about needle exchange and harm reduction services. She noted the Curry County Board of Commissioners didn’t give HIV Alliance that opportunity on Wednesday.
“We usually just talk about the evidence for the supplies we’re giving. Every supply we give is evidence-based to prevent some outcome that all of us agree we don’t want to have — it can be an HIV infection or an overdose death,” Yandel said. “Harm reduction doesn’t say drug use is OK or drug use is safe or minimizes the impact of drug use. But it is trying to minimize the reality is people are dealign with addictions and we can intervene and help them stay as safe as they can so when they’re ready for treatment they don’t arrive them with HIV or Hep C or we don’t lose them in the process.”
Alcorn asked Fitzgerald to take a closer look at the city’s ordinance. He said he wanted to see stronger language that specifically addresses county facilities. Alcorn said he’s passionate about shutting down HIV Alliance’s site because treating an addict like a victim is not helping them.
“I’m going to steel verbiage from a guy who I respect and follow, and that’s Jocko Wilink, and he says ‘Discipline equals freedom,’ and he’s right,” Alcorn said. “Let’s follow that, not this enabling and promoting.”
Alcorn told his colleagues he would stay on top of the issue.
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