HARM REDUCTION IN THE PARK

The Need For Needle Exchange -- And The Dangers Of The Mayor's Homeless Program

Anyone with any sense knows that Mayor Gavin Newsom's attempts to
clear homeless people out of Golden Gate Park won't work. It's been
tried before, under a series of mayors, and in the end, as long as
there's no suitable housing available, the park will have long-term
residents. You can sweep them out one day and pack the park with cops
the next, but eventually the extra attention will die down and the
homeless will be back.

But in the meantime, as J.B. Powell reports in this issue, the
backlash from the crackdown is hitting facilities like the
needle-exchange service in the Haight. And that's a big problem.

The mayor can play cat-and-mouse games with the homeless all he
wants, but needle exchange is a crucial public health issue. Dirty
needles spread AIDS, hepatitis, and other diseases; this is literally
about life and death, and the medical evidence is clear that
needle-exchange programs help. They also take a whole lot of dirty
needles off the streets (and out of the park): drug users not only
obtain clean syringes at the exchange, they also drop off their used ones.

Despite the best efforts of the needle-exchange programs, however,
there are going to be users who simply inject, then look for a place
to toss their rig. That's why Newsom ought to tell the Recreation and
Park Department to look seriously at putting safe, secure disposal
facilities in or around Golden Gate Park.

This isn't a radical idea -- Santa Cruz, New York, Baltimore,
Vancouver, and many other cities provide needle-disposal boxes in
areas with high drug use. That keeps a lot of the needles from being
discarded in areas where people and animals walk and play -- another
serious public health concern.

But Newsom and the folks at Rec and Park refuse to consider the idea
- -- because they don't think it would be politically popular. That's a
terrible way to approach a health crisis.

Yes, some park neighbors would complain about the presence of
canisters designed to hold hazardous medical waste. And it's
possible, of course, that vandals could attack the sites and spread
dangerous needles all over. But those downsides are relatively modest
compared to what we're facing right now: dirty needles are already
being discarded in the park. And everyone, including city gardeners
and maintenance workers, is at risk from an accidental needle stick.

The city has an official "harm-reduction" policy in place; since it's
not possible to stop all drug use, the city's supposed to do whatever
possible to prevent contagion and save lives. Secure needle-disposal
facilities in and around Golden Gate Park won't solve every
drug-related social problem, but they could help save a few lives.
And that makes the idea eminently worthy, whatever the political costs.