Pueblo City Council bans needle exchanges in 5-2 vote

Editor's note: This story was updated Tuesday afternoon to include additional comments from Pueblo city councilors.

Pueblo City Council approved an ordinance Monday to ban needle exchange programs from operating in the city.

Nearly 90% of the community members who spoke during public comment at Monday's council meeting expressed opposition to the ban, but council still passed the ordinance on a 5-2 vote.

Councilors Mark Aliff, Roger Gomez, Charles Hernandez, Joe Latino and Regina Maestri were the five councilors to vote in favor of the ordinance, which makes the "establishment, use or participation in" needle exchange programs a municipal offense. Councilors Dennis Flores and Sarah Martinez were in the minority, casting the two "no" votes.

Creating, administering, or participating in a syringe exchange program will now be considered a nuisance under the same section of Pueblo city code that regulates offenses against property.

Nuisances are considered Class 2 municipal offenses, but a “habitual offender” with two or more offenses within a five-year period could receive a jail sentence of up to 364 days.

Why needle exchange programs exist in Pueblo

Syringe exchange programs have operated in Pueblo for at least a decade. The only two organizations that operate such programs locally, Access Point Pueblo and the Southern Colorado Harm Reduction Association, provide unused syringes and safe disposal of used syringes to Pueblo residents in an effort to reduce the spread of bloodborne illnesses and the number of overdose deaths.

"Of all of the public health interventions to reduce HIV, syringe access programs have been one of the most effective strategies," Access Point Pueblo Health Hub Program Manager Sarah Money told the Chieftain on March 29. "In the last four years... we have not had a single reactive HIV test from someone who uses drugs."

Nearly three decades of research has shown that needle exchange programs, also known as syringe services programs, "are safe, effective, and cost-saving, do not increase illegal drug use or crime, and play an important role in reducing the transmission of viral hepatitis, HIV and other infections," according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Why some in Pueblo fought for the ban

However, such programs have drawn the ire of some politicians and business owners in the Steel City who claim that they encourage drug use and increase the number of discarded needles found throughout Pueblo.

”The City is experiencing an increase in the number of dirty hypodermic needles, syringes, and other drug paraphernalia being discarded in the City’s public places… presenting a threat to the health, property, safety, and welfare of the public in the City of Pueblo,” states a background paper on the ordinance, which was introduced by Gomez.

Syringe exchange programs have become a hotly contested topic in the Steel City and Monday night’s meeting was further evidence of that.

“Let’s return our city to some common decency… Let’s not promote this continual, perpetual enabling of the degradation of our country and our society,” said Augustine Garcia, who spoke in favor of the ordinance Monday night.

While six residents spoke in favor of the ban, the vast majority of attendees seated inside packed council chambers Monday night opposed the ban. A total of 44 residents spoke against the ordinance prior to council’s vote.

“How is banning one of the first steps to recovery, an actual health intervention, going to be efficient at healing drug users?” said BreeAnna Guerra Rodriguez, an opponent of the ordinance. “It won’t be.”

Prior to Monday night’s regular council meeting, members of Access Point Pueblo and the community outreach program Project Apollo spoke against the ban on syringe exchange programs during a council work session.

“All of the research done in the past 30 years points to sterile syringe programs being the best option for reducing IV drug use, reducing HIV transmission, reducing hepatitis C rates and helping drug users get into treatment,” said Dr. John Emahiser, a resident physician with Project Apollo.

However, council members who would later approve the ban made their opinions known as well during the work session.

”We have needles all over,” Maestri said. “We have business owners and teachers coming in and cleaning up the mess that’s created by the user who isn’t responsible enough to dispose of their needles.”

Council members heard from 44 opponents of the ordinance. Why did the majority of them still vote for it?

Members of Pueblo City Council heard more than two hours of public commentary from Pueblo residents opposing the prohibition of syringe exchange programs compared to just 18 minutes of commentary from those who supported it on Monday night.

Martinez told Monday night's attendees that she also received over 40 emails — including some from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the Colorado Providers Association, business owners and law enforcement — urging council to vote against the ordinance.

However, council members who voted against the ordinance claimed last night's turnout and those emails were not representative of the Pueblo community as a whole. Hernandez told the Chieftain that several members of the community who support the ordinance did not speak publicly or send emails for "fear of retribution" or "retaliation."

Similarly, Latino told the Chieftain that he received a number of calls and text messages from community members supporting his "yes" vote on the ordinance.

"It's what's best for this community," Latino said. "In particular, the safety of the young people, the children, young adults, and adults themselves and the community in general."

Maestri told the Chieftain that many Pueblo residents share the sentiment syringe access programs have not done an adequate job in the "exchange" and disposal of used syringes.

"Despite the CDC, the statistics and the data — it is not wearing well on our community... the needle exchange was always referred to as a needle exchange," Maestri said. "That's how the program was sold to the community, but if they're having sharps boxes and disposal kiosks everywhere, they're not tracking it."

Harm reduction organizations speak out: Pueblo harm reduction experts say needle exchange ban would 'lead to a lot more needles'

Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached at JBartolo@gannett.com. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Why Pueblo City Council is banning needle exchanges