Next week, the San Diego City Council will review and vote on whether to approve the Clean Syringe Exchange Program’s (CSEP) first annual report since the program re-launched in mid-2006.

Opponents of the program shut down the city’s pilot needle-exchange operated by Family Health Centers of San Diego a year earlier, but current City Council support and a positive annual report have program supporters hopeful the city council will allow the program to continue.

“The effectiveness of clean syringe-exchange programs has been established years ago by careful epidemiological, biomedical and sociological research,” said Ian Trowbridge, Salk Institute/UCSD professor, in response to a CityBeat article last week about CSEP.

“A great deal of thought and effort was put into choosing suitable sites for a mobile clean syringe-exchange program in the city including community outreach,” he said.

Clean needle-exchange programs allow intravenous drug users and people who rely on injection medication to exchange used syringes for clean ones.

Trowbridge’s confidence in the program is also shared by Mayor Jerry Sanders and many councilmembers, who helped reinstate the program after it was shut down in 2005.

Councilmember Toni Atkins said she is a supporter of CSEP because she “believe[s] that it serves to protect the health of many in the community who are at risk.”

In January 2000, State law AB136 decriminalized needle-exchange programs operated by public entities, provided the city or county declares a local health emergency. While the city says it “does not endorse or condone the use of illegal drugs,” the spread of hepatitis C and HIV through the shared use of needles and syringes prompted the city council to declare a state of emergency in 2001.

The program operated for four years before opposition lobbied to have it closed. Opponents claim the program condones drug use and leads to increased crime in neighborhoods.

“It is important to me that we get the most out of this program, while having the least possible negative impacts to our neighborhoods,” Atkins said. “That is why it’s vital to get the community’s buy-in to the program to the fullest extent possible.”

CSEP, a mobile program which operates out of an RV, sets up shop in the East Village and just off University Avenue in North Park twice a week, for three hours each day. When people show up, they meet with a case manager and are offered access to a variety of services, from HIV/AIDS prevention to housing. Last year, approximately 3,600 people took advantage of the program, which received 127,136 dirty needles, and handed out 106,368 clean ones.

It seems that prevention advocates aren’t alone in support of the program that has a $147,000 budget.

Police officers, who have to concern themselves with infection during the regular performance of their duties due to accidental needle sticks, also support it.

While reported incidents of crime near the East Village location have decreased, there is a slight increase near the North Park location (up from 60 in 2006 to 66 in 2007).

In the CityBeat article, Sgt. Mike Parga said there is no evidence the program is at fault for the slight increase.

According to the Social and Behavioral Research Institute at California State University San Marcos, 85 percent of San Diego County registered voters either fully supported syringe-exchange programs or felt that San Diego needed a syringe-exchange program provided it reduced the transmission of HIV and served as a bridge to drug treatment. Approximately 70 percent believed that syringe-exchange programs save taxpayers money on health care and protect children and the community from the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Supporters anticipate that such information will prompt the City Council to approve the program’s report.

“The North Park site currently … criticized by Martin Chevalier [opponent] was chosen after he objected to two other sites. However, it is just as futile to debate … on the merits of syringe-exchange programs as it would be to persuade Peter Duesberg [author of Inventing The AIDS Virus] that HIV causes AIDS,” explained Trowbridge.