Burlington will examine needle exchange program to improve strategy and reduce syringe litter | Vermont Public

Nov 02, 2024

Vermont's largest city will conduct a study of its local syringe exchange program amid a spike in reports of needles discarded in public places.

The Burlington City Council unanimously approved a resolution Monday night that directs the city's board of health, a five-member citizen advisory group, to conduct the study focused on strategies to improve the needle exchange program and reduce syringe litter.

Celia Bird, chair of the Burlington City Board of Health, told the city council on Monday the board was looking forward to starting its work.

“We hope to be able to design and recommend strategies that are reasonable for our community, feasible and very specific to the city's needs,” Bird said on Monday.

Research has shown syringe exchanges are an effective way to halt the spread of disease, and they don’t increase crime or drug use, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People who use injection drugs can get clean needles at these programs and return used syringes. The programs can be an initial contact point to get people into substance use treatment.

In Burlington, the Howard Center has operated Safe Recovery, which was the first needle exchange program in Vermont, for more than two decades.

But only a quarter of 20,000 syringes given out each month by Safe Recovery are returned, with the rest unaccounted for, and there’s been a sharp uptick in residents reporting discarded needles around the Queen City, according to the resolution approved Monday night.

In its resolution, the council said that increase in discarded needles presents a hazard to children, and workers who pick them up.

The Howard Center is looking forward to working with the city on the study, but discarded needles are a symptom of a bigger problem, said Dan Hall, director of outpatient services at the organization.

“The syringe litter is definitely an issue, but it really is, in my opinion, a litter issue, a beautification issue,” Hall said in an interview on Wednesday. “The core issue is that Vermonters are struggling severely with substance use disorder, drugs right now that are super toxic, super lethal.”

Fatal overdoses have killed 856 people in Vermont since 2020. According to the health department, there have been 104 fatal overdoses reported in the first seven months of this year, lower than the three year average.

The study in Burlington will look at methods other cities have used to reduce syringe litter, including a new program in Boston that plans to give people money in exchange for picking up needles, and includes job training and skills building. A previous program in Boston that paid people 20 cents per syringe with a $10 daily limit ended this year after it ran out of funds, according to the Boston Globe.

Hall said Safe Recovery has piloted similar incentive programs in the past where people who returned syringes were entered into a raffle.

“And got at the very least, like, a cup of coffee or a snack, but also gas cards and phone cards,” Hall said. “It helped increase [the] ratio of syringe return, but also helped these folks get some basic needs met.”

The Burlington City Board of Health will present its report to the city council in February.

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