Needle exchange coming to Grant County

EPHRATA — A needle exchange program is coming to Grant County this month, part of the Grant County Health District’s efforts to deal with the opiates crisis.

“There’s a lot of heroin confiscation, especially in Moses Lake,” said Shawta Sackett, a health district epidemiologist. “And discarded needles, especially on trails and in parks.”

Sackett, who designed the program and outlined it for the health district board on Wednesday evening, said the program would be a “one-for-one exchange” — a needle would only go out for each one turned in.

The needle exchange will be part of the health district’s mobile outreach services, and will also provide naloxone to combat opioid overdoses, condoms, and access to substance abuse treatment and counseling.

Sackett said it is important to make sure that intravenous drug users — which is how most heroin is consumed — don’t share needles. Needle sharing increases the risk of spreading diseases like HIV and Hepatitis C.

Kicking the heroin habit is hard, Sackett told board members, because 90 percent of addicts relapse at least once.

Recovery is the ultimate goal for all IV drug users, Sacket said.

“Will the availability of needles compound the problem? Are we just enabling addicts?” asked board member and County Commissioner Tom Taylor.

“It’s about harm reduction, it meets the patient where they are,” Sackett said. “People using needle exchanges are five times more likely to get help and enter recovery.”

David Curnel, Moses Lake deputy mayor who represents the city on the health district board, said that needle exchanges in the end save taxpayers money.

“If we can prevent one case of HIV,” he said. “Taxpayers pay for HIV treatments, because almost no one who gets that disease can afford the treatments.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.