SANTA CRUZ, Calif. -- Cookers, cotton and bleach. A complete kit for drug users handed out to thousands on the Central Coast every week. Now, Santa Cruz Police said more needles are popping up across the city and said volunteers behind a needle exchange program could be to blame.
It's new information on the underlying drug problem Central Coast News has been following. City and county leaders are getting ready to address the issue on Tuesday.
"They're (volunteers) just distributing them out there to individuals to whoever would ask and as many as they want," said Steve Clark, deputy chief for Santa Cruz Police.
Clark showed Central Coast News a kit drug users get every week from Street Outreach Supporters (SOS), a group behind a needle exchange program that serves Santa Cruz and Watsonville several times a week. SOS exchanges about 5,000 needles a week, or about 20,000 per month.
Clark said people participating in the program are getting more than just a needle, including cookers, cotton and bleach.
"These (cookers) are actually used to cook the drugs in, prior to sucking them up into the syringe," he said.
But Emily Ager, volunteer for the needle exchange program, said each item is actually helping fight diseases, like HIV and Hepatitis C. She said without the program, there would be more needles found in Santa Cruz parks and beaches.
"Even if they're using a clean syringe, they could get Hep C from that, which is why we give all those things out," she said.
In 2008, the Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency said funding was cut, impacting the needle exchange program. Since then, it's been run by a group of volunteers, something police aren't happy with.
Part of the problem with needles in the city surround a law passed last year that allows people over 18 to buy up to 30 syringes without a prescription. Clark said the county needs to step up, instead of letting the issue make its way to the Police Department's front porch.
"They need to take responsibility and accountaibility as a public health concern," he said.
Leslie Goodfriend, Senior Health Services manager for the Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency, said the county wouldn't work with SOS if it thought volunteers weren't accountable. She said she looks forward to city, county and the community to work together to address the issue.
"What we are looking forward to is the community wants law enforcement to work more closely with needle exchange," she said.
The Public Safety Committee, made up of three Santa Cruz City Councilmembers (David Terrazas, Cynthia Mathews and Pamela Comstock), will make recommendations to the full City Council on Tuesday at 6 p.m. The meeting will be held at the City Council chambers.
