CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Mayor Danny Jones says he’s now convinced he won’t win the battle against the needles from the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department’s needle exchange program.
The majority of Charleston Council members went against the mayor Monday night and his plan to re-criminalize the needles and instead voted to form a task force and study the issue for 60 days.
Jones, speaking on his talk show 580-Live on WCHS Radio in Charleston Tuesday, lamented the maneuver.
“It’s an obfuscation,” he said. “It gave cover to the people who are running for office because they were smart enough to put it off until after the election.”
The 60 days will allow the council to avoid a vote until late May, well after the primary.
Councilman Andy Richardson, a Democrat candidate for mayor, denied the cover vote during an appearance Tuesday on MetroNews “Talkline.”
“In my primary, my opponent and I have similar views on this,” Richardson said.
He favors fixing the program not eliminating it.
“The unintended consequences of the harm reduction program (needle exchange) has been an explosion of needles,” Richardson said. “Eliminating the needles may lead to unattended consequences of a Hepatitis epidemic, HIV epidemic, let’s be smart about this.”
Richardson said he supports possible changes like using retractable needles that would prevent a needle from being used again. Richardson said council’s original ordnance allowing for the needle exchange program has a provision that calls for the city’s police chief to promulgate rules and regulations for the exchange of hypodermic needles but there were never any rules established, Richardson said.
Jones doubts the effectiveness of the task force.
“It will be the health department folks. They’ll put together a network, have meetings, collaborate and rap a little,” he said. “They’ll call the press and have a town hall meeting and at the end they won’t accomplish a thing.”
Richardson said he believes a fix is possible.
“It’s working in Huntington. It’s working in Wheeling. It’s working in many communities across the country. Let’s take a look at fixing this before we create an adjoining crisis by simply doing away with the needle exchange,” Richardson said.
Jones believes some changes would be made to the program in the near term to try and stem the flow of needles being given away, but predicted when warm weather arrives the problems would ramp up exponentially.
More than 630,000 needles have been given away in two years but only roughly 230,000 returned. Jones said drug dealers are stalking the health department on needle giveaway days and selling drugs in hidden areas all around the building including the Charleston Town Center Mall, around the Civic Center, and on the riverfront.
“I’m sorry for what they’re going through,” said Jones of the users. “I don’t know of too many families this situation hasn’t touched, including mine. But that doesn’t mean we have to wreck our downtown. This is a formula for failure to have this going on.”
The city’s police department says it’s experienced a significant increase in “calls for service” in the past two years.
“It is a direct correlation to the needle exchange. It is not a coincidence to what we’re seeing in our world as a police department,” CPD Captain Mark Abbott said.
The department had 52,200 calls for service in 2015 and 79,150 in 2017, Abbott said.
The police department maintains the program has brought a certain criminal element to Charleston.
“They break into cars to steal things to get money to buy the illegal drugs. They steal cars to get from place to place in order to get the drugs,” Abbott said. “We can debate it all day long but it’s not coincidence.”
Auto breaking and entering crimes have increased by 283 over the two years of the program and stolen vehicles by 111 over that period of time, Abbott said.
“People are starting to shy away from Charleston because of this problem. I don’t even know how else to put it. At the start of the needle exchange it was a good thought, but it’s not working,” he said.
Jones’ stiffest charge, one that was challenged in Monday night’s council meeting by Councilman Bobby Reischman, was to accuse those who opposed ending the needle program as being racked with guilt. He added, they were elite and unaffected by the negative impact.
“These needles aren’t in Quarry Creek. They’re not up at my house in Loudon Heights,” Jones said. “These are some guilt-ridden folks and they think that somehow having a mini-mall for junkies and drug dealers is a way to ease their conscious and that’s exactly what we voted to do.”