Case report
The Washington Needle Depot: fitting healthcare to injection drug users rather than injection drug users to healthcare: moving from a syringe exchange to syringe distribution model
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* Corresponding author: Dan Small dansmall@interchange.ubc.ca
1 PHS Community Services Society, 20 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC, V6B 1G6, Canada
2 Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, 6303 NW Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1, Canada
3 Union of BC Indian Chiefs, 500 - 342 Water Street, Vancouver, BC, V6B 1B6, Canada
4 PHS Community Services Society, 20 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC, V6B 1G6, Canada
5 Life is not Enough Society, 42 Blood Alley Square, Vancouver BC, V6B 1C8, Canada
Harm Reduction Journal 2010, 7:1 doi:10.1186/1477-7517-7-1
Published: 4 January 2010Abstract
Needle exchange programs chase political as well as epidemiological dragons, carrying within them both implicit moral and political goals. In the exchange model of syringe distribution, injection drug users (IDUs) must provide used needles in order to receive new needles. Distribution and retrieval are co-existent in the exchange model. Likewise, limitations on how many needles can be received at a time compel addicts to have multiple points of contact with professionals where the virtues of treatment and detox are impressed upon them. The centre of gravity for syringe distribution programs needs to shift from needle exchange to needle distribution, which provides unlimited access to syringes. This paper provides a case study of the Washington Needle Depot, a program operating under the syringe distribution model, showing that the distribution and retrieval of syringes can be separated with effective results. Further, the experience of IDUs is utilized, through paid employment, to provide a vulnerable population of people with clean syringes to prevent HIV and HCV.