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00000176-e6f7-dce8-adff-f6f770410000PublicSource is an independent, nonprofit news group that focuses on original investigative reporting about critical issues facing Pittsburgh and the Western Pennsylvania region. It was launched to undertake in-depth reporting in the public interest.PublicSource is a content partner of 90.5 WESA.More about PublicSource here.

PA Law Prohibits Needle Exchanges That Can Save Lives

Connor Mulvaney
/
PublicSource
Prevention Point Pittsburgh distributes clean syringes and other sterilized materials for drug users in Allegheny County.

Tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians crave daily injections of heroin. Beyond the threat of overdose is the threat of being exposed to HIV and hepatitis C, both deadly and expensive illnesses that are easily spread through contaminated needles.

But in Pennsylvania, distributing sterile syringes is a criminal act.

For years, Dianna Pagan feared that giving out clean syringes in Reading would land her in jail. Officials there recently agreed to let her needle exchange operate, though she’s faced numerous setbacks for more than a decade, including being shut down following the threat of prosecution.

“There’s no protection,” said Pagan, who contracted HIV while using drugs at age 19. In an effort to help others, she started distributing clean needles more than 15 years ago through Reading Risk Reduction.

Only in Allegheny County and Philadelphia have local leaders publicly supported needle exchanges, essentially ignoring state law out of concern for public health.

Elsewhere, identical efforts expose volunteers to legal hassles and, in the worst case, jail, if police and prosecutors decide they’re violating the state’s drug paraphernalia law.

“We have laws on the books that are causing needless illness and death,” said Caroline Acker, who helped start Prevention Point Pittsburgh in 1995, back before local officials gave it protection.

Most of Pennsylvania’s neighboring states have explicitly authorized at least some needle exchanges, as have other states hit with an injection drug crisis.

Most notably, Indiana lawmakers passed a needle exchange bill after Gov. Mike Pence — previously an opponent to needle exchanges  — authorized a short-term exchange following a sudden and troubling spike in HIV cases.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania has seen an increase in heroin use and in acute hepatitis C, though the state’s health and drug treatment agencies say they lack the authority to fund or implement exchanges.

Read more of this report at the website of our partner PublicSource.