Santa Monica residents, city leaders call for end of needle exchange program
With plenty of stuff for his kids to do, Reed Park is Dannon Smith's go-to place to take his daughters.
However, it's also a weekly spot for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health's needles exchange program. The county, which partners with the Venice Family Clinic, encounters around 500 people and distributes around 1000 doses of Narcan and tens of thousands of clean needles every month.
"The needle exchange program is good, you know?" Smith said. "Here at the park? Maybe in retrospect with all the children, a different spot. I would [move it] maybe down at the city building or somewhere near the police department. I mean it's a hop, skip and a jump away from here."
In a letter sent to county officials, Santa Monica's Mayor Sue Himmelrich agreed with Smith and called for the program to be relocated.
"We seek your assistance in immediately moving this program to a service-rich environment (preferably indoors) where individuals in need of substance abuse, mental health, and other services can coordinate and work directly with service providers [sic]," she wrote.
The county's Substance Abuse Prevention Medical Director Brian Hurley said his office has already started negotiating with Santa Monica to look for an alternate location. When the two parties find a new location he hopes to expand the service to those in need.
"It's expanding the number of hours and accessibility of those services to the community of Santa Monica in locations that are more acceptable to the city than Reed Park has been," said Hurley. "That includes moving into indoor locations."
While at Reed Park, outreach workers with the Venice Family Clinic spent three hours a week providing various services.
"Overdose prevention, mental health addiction treatment, there's a variety," said Hurley. "HIV testing, hepatitis testing, that's all a part of the suite of packages of harm reduction syringe services."
