AUGUSTA — City officials are putting the brakes on any new or expanded needle exchange programs in response to public concerns surrounding the presence and risk of discarded needles.
The Augusta City Council voted 5-3 Thursday to enact a moratorium on needle exchange programs. The pause provides councilors with time to review, evaluate and amend existing ordinances governing the programs.
The moratorium will prevent the establishment of any new needle exchange programs for 180 days. The current operations of organizations offering needle exchange programs in the city will not be affected, but they will not be allowed to expand those operations during the 180-day period.
There are currently two organizations offering needle exchange programs in Augusta: MaineGeneral Health and the Maine Recovery Access Project. No new programs have been proposed.
Needle exchange programs, also known as syringe service programs, offer members of the public new, clean needles in exchange for used ones to reduce harm for individuals who use drugs. By providing clean needles, programs hope to prevent the transmission of illnesses like HIV and hepatitis C.
Mayor Mark O’Brien and At-large Councilor Annalee Morris-Polley proposed the temporary ban in response to public concerns.
At the June council informational meeting, Morris-Polley said the moratorium was not proposed to eliminate dispensing clean needles, but rather to explore options to increase both the cleanup of discarded needles and education around safe needle disposal.
On Thursday, Councilors Kevin Judkins, Ward 2; Michael Michaud, Ward 3; Eric Lind, Ward 4; Morris-Polley; and Joshua Lilley voted in support of the moratorium, while councilors Robert Eric Austin, Stefanie Sienkiewicz and Courtney Gary-Allen voted against it.
Lind said he supported the moratorium because he believes it is the council’s responsibility to consider factors like public safety, economic development and environmental stewardship and thoughtfully weigh all interests to avoid “unintended consequences” if new facilities open in Augusta.
“My vote is not a rejection of harm reduction,” Lind said. “It’s a commitment to good governance by ensuring we have clear policies in place before additional facilities are established.”
Austin, in addition to Gary-Allen and Sienkiewicz, raised concerns that the moratorium would be equating harm reduction service like needle exchanges with negative public health and safety impacts.
“I think there’s a, you know, fair debate about the degree of risk or harm there is in the community,” Mayor O’Brien said. “Maybe there is, maybe there isn’t, but I think certainly the community thinks that there is, and I think this is a way to respond to that in a responsible way without affecting the existing operations.”
Members of the public had mixed reactions to the moratorium.
Several individuals wore “Welcome to Drugusta” shirts to the meeting and placed a sign in the room that was covered in needles and other drug-related supplies and read “Harm reduction does not work, change my mind.”
Harley Richards, an Augusta resident who made the sign, spoke several times throughout the meeting about drug usage in her neighborhood and concerns that providing supplies to individuals who use drugs only encourages them to continue using.
“I’m asking for more people to put eyes on this situation because this is not helping,” Richards said. “I am not saying that the needle exchange program is a failure. … What I’m saying is that it is not working for our town.”
Raegan LaRochelle, board chair for the Maine Recovery Access Project, spoke against the moratorium, saying it would not reduce syringe waste but instead restrict the programs and strategies aimed at reducing that waste.
She also said while the moratorium does not affect the current operations of the Maine Recovery Access Project, it perpetuates a harmful and false narrative that syringe service programs are correlated to syringe waste in public.
“If our shared goal is truly fewer syringes in parks, on sidewalks and in our neighborhoods, then the solution is to strengthen the strategies that are proven to work, rather than restricting them,” LaRochelle said.
This story was originally published by the Maine Trust for Local News. Sara Coughlin can be reached at scoughlin@metln.org.