The Daviess County Council unanimously passed a resolution today that says they will not fund a needle exchange program in Daviess County.
Such programs have been initiated in some Indiana counties in an effort to curtail HIV and Hepatitis from spreading within a community through shared needles used by mainly heroin addicts. However, Daviess County Prosecutor Dan Murrie, the county sheriff, the Washington police chief and the county health officer all told the council today that the cons outweigh the pros.
Murrie gave a passionate presentation calling needle exchange programs government sponsored drug paraphernalia giveaways. Murrie showed pictures of the items received in an exchange and said it’s a drug kit with everything a heroin addict needs accept the heroin. It included needles, materials to cook the drug and band aids to use after a user shoots up. He said if anyone on the street had these items he could charge them with paraphernalia possession.
Murrie says Daviess County is not seeing a major problem with heroin currently, he says it’s still a meth county. However, he preached that scarcity works. He noted that since it became more difficult to buy pseudoephedrine, the amount of meth labs in the county and state have decreased in recent years.
The council passed the resolution which basically says if a needle exchange program was ever requested they will not fund it. They said the action taken today can be revisited if need be in the future. A new state law gives Indiana counties the power to decide whether exchange programs are needed or wanted. It also requires them to fund a program as the state is no longer involved in granting permission for programs or paying for them.
