CHARLESTON — On March 9th, S.B. 334 passed the State Senate with 22 senators voting in support of the bill.
Throughout West Virginia, needles have been found scattered around communities. Most concerningly, they have become prevalent in city parks and playgrounds, creating a biohazard for children. To help combat this problem, S.B. 334 requires organizations providing a needle exchange program to register with the State of West Virginia and also offer a rehabilitation program. This would make organizations providing needles to drug addicts accountable to the state.
It also requires the majority of county commissioners to support the program prior to its approval, creating accountability and establishing oversight by local elected officials. Additionally, the sheriff from the county in which the applicant is located or proposing to locate the needle exchange program must also provide a letter of support.
Sen. Eric Tarr (R-4), the lead sponsor of the bill, expressed in a statement that ‘needle exchanges’ are completely unregulated in West Virginia under the current state code.
“There’s a group (more recently has been in the news) that was eager to dump 312,000 needles into Charleston, WV alone,” Sen. Tarr stated. “Between last year and this year, the DHHR has told us the ones that report (and this isn’t all of them [just the ones that reported]) were short 1 million needles that got left in the state of West Virginia somewhere.”
This is significant, as the purpose of a ‘needle exchange program’ is to exchange contaminated needles for clean ones, rather than simply providing clean needles to drug addicts without a ‘needle exchange.’ Proponents of S.B. 334 cite the issues that arise from unregulated ‘needle exchange’ programs as strong reasons for governmental oversight.
Just 11 senators voted against the bill, including 10 Democrats and 1 Republican.
The bill passed 22-11, advancing to the House for passage.
