FARGO — City Commissioner Michelle Turnberg is proposing the city of Fargo immediately eliminate the needle exchange program operated by Fargo Cass Public Health. This program is one of many offered out of the Harm Reduction Center, 510 5th St. N.
, including education and materials to reduce the risk of harm caused by drug use. The center also offers infectious disease prevention education and refers people to healthcare, drug treatment and social services. Turnberg is concerned that discarded needles pose a danger to the public and she thinks the city could use the money now spent on needles in other ways, according to the Fargo City Commission packet for Monday, Nov.
25. However, the 29-year-old research article that Turnberg included in the commission packet contradicts her concern about discarded needles, stating that needle exchange programs do not increase the “number of dirty needles discarded in public places.” Fargo Cass Public Health has been operating a syringe services programs for seven years, Prevention Coordinator Robyn Litke Sall told The Forum, as have over 545 other cities nationwide for many years.
A syringe services program is similar to a needle exchange program, she said, except that it includes a host of comprehensive services around drug use like education, referrals and testing. Without a syringe services program, the amount of discarded needles in the city is likely to increase, Litke Sall said, as will costly infectious diseases like Hepatitis.