Quick Take
A clean needle distribution program in Santa Cruz County previously halted by the courts amid resident and police opposition has been reinstated by California health officials under tightened restrictions.
A safe-syringe program shut down after opposition from law enforcement and a neighborhood group in Santa Cruz County has been reinstated by California state health officials. Yet despite new restrictions intended to address the concerns of some residents and law enforcement agencies, local police believe the program still poses public safety problems.
The Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County (HRC) formally announced this week that the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) had reauthorized its mobile syringe services, which deliver clean syringes to people across the county, in December 2024.
“We feel incredibly proud of where we’re at and we feel very confident that we are in it for the long haul,” said the coalition’s acting executive director, Anna Koplos-Villanueva.
The state had previously revoked the coalition’s authorization in November 2023 after a Sacramento Superior Court judge sided with the Grant Park Neighborhood Association, a residents group that sued the state’s public health department in 2020 seeking to block the syringe program. The neighborhood association argued that the coalition had not properly consulted with law enforcement agencies or the public and was siphoning resources from the separate county-run syringe-exchange program.
The fight in Santa Cruz echoes broader statewide disputes. Similar programs have been previously challenged or shut down in cities such as Chico and Eureka and in Orange County, often amid accusations by opponents that they create public safety risks and environmental hazards from abandoned needles.
Denise Elerick, founder of the Harm Reduction Coalition, said after the court ruling that the group followed state guidelines to hold a 45-day public comment period and negotiate with local law enforcement agencies, resulting in specific new conditions on the syringe program. “We received favorable comments from our community — many more than opposing,” she said.
Conversations facilitated by the state with Santa Cruz police helped clarify misconceptions and led to constructive changes, said Elerick. It included a specific agreement to not deliver clean syringes to public parks or land trust properties, although Elerick added that the organization was already not delivering to parks prior to deauthorization. “It was very beneficial for the state to have these ongoing meetings with the police, because there was a lot of confusion and misinformation about what we do,” Elerick said. “I think that opened some eyes.”
Koplos-Villanueva — who uses they/them pronouns — said they were not terribly worried about failing to gain reauthorization. “I think, fundamentally, the CDPH’s No. 1 responsibility is public health, and all of our operations have been scientifically founded, evidence-based practices,” they said. “I think that we trusted CDPH to fulfill their public duties.”
Yet Santa Cruz Police Chief Bernie Escalante has his reservations about not only HRC’s program, but also the county-run syringe services program, now named the Safe Use and Overdose Prevention Program.
“The impacts of these programs might be proven or beneficial from a public health standpoint, but they don’t help from a public safety perspective,” he said.
Escalante said he mostly has an issue with the delivery aspect of the programs, rather than giving people a designated place to go to get clean needles. He said that not delivering to parks “helps,” but that it doesn’t erase his concerns of public drug use in the city.
“It’s clear the state wants to approve the program, so we focused the best we could on mitigating the negative impacts,” he said. “[The community] can come up with their own opinions of the programs themselves.”
After the coalition had its authorization revoked, Koplos-Villanueva said the organization lost its California Clearinghouse funding, a state program that provides discounted supplies, technical assistance and support to syringe service programs across the state. They called it “a blow” to the organization, because the program provides supplies other than those that pertain specifically to syringe distribution and exchange.
The HRC does not receive county funding; rather, it gets funding from the California Overdose and Harm Reduction Initiative, which is by and large opioid settlement funding. Each state received some amount of money from nationwide settlements that were reached to resolve opioid litigation between states and local political entities and pharmaceutical distributors.
Beyond syringe exchange and distribution, the HRC provides a broad range of resources and materials to those who need them. Those include naloxone (an emergency overdose reversal drug), safe sex kits, basic hygiene supplies, wound care supplies, quality of life items when available like tents, tarps and sleeping bags, and referrals to other behavioral health resources. The HRC was still able to perform these duties while its syringe program was deauthorized.
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