Center approves program for harm reduction

Apr. 14—The Latah Recovery Center will implement a harm-reduction program that allows drug users to exchange used needles and syringes for clean ones and engages addicts in what could be their first step to recovery.

The recovery center board, on a 4-2 vote, approved partnering with the North Idaho AIDS Coalition in Coeur d'Alene to start the program in Moscow.

Board members, recovery center staff and members of the public, including recovering addicts, spoke in favor of and against the program.

"I realize that the recovery center is for people that are in recovery, but I think if people are dying in the meantime, then they don't ever get the chance to get into recovery," said Ariana Murphy, board member and chairwoman of the recovery center's harm-reduction program subcommittee.

Murphy said studies have shown harm-reduction programs benefit drug addicts by protecting users from diseases like HIV and hepatitis C and members of the community by reducing the number of used needles in public places.

According to a brochure at the recovery center, harm-reduction measures reduce the transmission of HIV by as much as 70 percent and decrease drug overdose fatalities by 80 percent.

The details of the program, including its location, have not been defined.

But recovery center director Darrell Keim said the program would be modeled after the North Idaho AIDS Coalition's program, which provides addicts the opportunity to safely disposal of used syringes and receive a sterile supply kit; learn about available resources and programs in the community; receive prevention tips for HIV and hepatitis C; get free HIV and hepatitis C screening; and receive a free sample of Naloxone Narcan), a medication that reverses an opioid overdose.

The services provided by the Coeur d'Alene-based program meet requirements provided in the Syringe and Needle Exchange Act passed by the Idaho Legislature in 2019.

A few recovering addicts expressed concern that the program would tempt them into using again because they would consider bringing used needles in to exchange or they could see addicts they previously used drugs with enter the building to exchange needles. Two of them said the program is a good idea but preferred it be implemented somewhere else in town besides the recovery center.

Another recovering addict, who supported the program, said he shared needles and got hepatitis C because of it. He said he overdosed multiple times and if it wasn't for Narcan, he would be dead.

Shaun Hogan, volunteer Moscow Crisis Center coordinator, said a harm reduction program is consistent with the goals of the recovery center to promote self care, link peers to services and honor its commitment to meet people where they are in their recovery.

"I see the program as a positive means to create engagement with members of the community who do not currently seek services with the recovery center," Hogan said.

Murphy said the program is also a money saver.

She said the average cost per user per year of a harm reduction program is about $20. Murphy said when she was an addict, taxpayers footed her $500,000 medical bills when she was infected and almost died from reusing her own needles.

"Starting to take care of yourself as an active user is the first step towards recovery," Murphy said.

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Cabeza can be reached at (208) 883-4631, or by email to gcabeza@dnews.com