Denver mayor Mike Johnston took little time vetoing a city council ordinance that would have allowed an unlimited number of needle exchange sites in the city and would have allowed needle exchanges to operate next to schools and day cares.
In a letter to the council on Tuesday night, Johnston, a Democrat, reaffirmed his commitment to Denver’s “syringe access program as it currently operates,” which costs the city more than a half-million dollars annually. But, he wrote, the council ordinance passed in an 8-5 vote on Monday that would have allowed for a great expansion of needle exchange sites “is the wrong solution at the wrong time.”
The use of needles and syringes to ingest drugs has declined, he said, and providers at three current sites are meeting the need.
“There is no reason to remove a reasonable cap on the number of needle exchange programs, there is no evidence that the current providers need an unlimited number of sites and there is no evidence that residents of Denver want an unlimited number of sites,” Johnston wrote.
He also took issue with the council’s attempt to remove the “common sense” requirement of a 1,000-foot buffer between needle exchange sites and schools and daycare centers.
“There is no shortage of sites available to providers without eliminating the reasonable setback from schools that is currently in law” he wrote.
The bill, which would have eliminated the three-site cap on needle exchange sites in areas zoned for medical offices, was sponsored by a couple of the council’s most progressive members, Sarah Parady and Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, along with councilwoman Stacie Gilmore.
The sites provide illegal-drug users with clean needles and syringes to prevent the spread of diseases and they provide a place for drug users to dispose of used paraphernalia. Some exchanges offer smoking pipes and overdose-reversal drugs, and addicts can also be offered counseling. Illegal drugs are not allowed to be injected at the exchange sites.
Parady said Johnston’s veto runs counter to a Denver health department study and that the ordinance they passed was supported by several health agencies and addiction recovery organizations, according to the Denver Post.
“In a time when Denver is desperate for tools to stem the opioid addiction crisis, we need more of these crucial front-line services,” Parady said, according to the Post. “His decision… leaves us without the ability to add more sites for proper disposal of dirty needles (which otherwise end up in the garbage or on the ground, putting city employees and the public at risk.)”
Councilman Darrell Watson, who voted against the bill on Monday because it eliminates the distancing requirement from schools, said residents in his district “have been clear” that “removing the distance restriction is something that they do not support,” according to the Denver Gazette.
Council woman Amanda Sawyer said the experience that some residents and business owners have had with the two needle exchanges in her district haven’t been positive, according to news reports. “I can tell you that the in-person needle exchange program is a terrible neighbor,” she said at a December meeting.
Supporters of the measure argue that people who utilize needle exchanges are more likely to seek treatment and get clean. Councilman Paul Kashmann, who voted in favor of the bill, clarified that “we’re not talking about opening supervised injection sites,” according to the Denver Post, but added “that discussion may come again at some point.”
A Gazette editorial last week said the 1,000-foot buffer between needle exchanges and schools is “a standard feature of zoning codes in other cities and hardly is a lot to ask. Indeed, it’s a modest restriction on a supposed community service that, by definition, serves people who are breaking the law.”
The editorial adds that needle exchanges “shouldn’t be tolerated at all,” in part because they “make it easier for addicts to stay on a self-destructive path that likely will end in an overdose” and because spent drug debris will inevitably end up in the city’s parks and playgrounds.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to note that Denver mayor Mike Johnston vetoed the needle exchange bill approved by the city council on Monday.