During a Tuesday meeting of the Portland City Council’s Health and Human Services and Public Safety Committee, City Councilor Kate Sykes, former co-chair of the Maine Democratic Socialists of America, claimed that used hypodermic needles littering the city are “not a public health risk.”
Sykes’ comments came after a presentation from Portland’s Interim Public Health Director, Bridget Rauscher, on the city’s Syringe Services Program (SSP) and concerns from residents regarding syringe litter throughout the city.
[RELATED: Maine Is Handing Out Free “Boofing” Kits to Help Fentanyl Addicts Squirt Drugs Up Their Butts…]
Portland’s SSP, commonly referred to as “The Exchange,” is part of a statewide “harm reduction” program overseen by the Maine CDC that distributes hypodermic needles to people who inject drugs.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Maine suspended rules requiring needle exchange clinics to take used needles out of circulation before providing new clean needles to drug users. Current Maine CDC guidelines allow for the syringe exchanges to distribute up to 100 needles for every one needle that they collect, meaning the needle “exchanges” function more like taxpayer-funded needle distribution centers.
Data presented to the committee earlier this year by the city staff showed that from January to May 2024, Portland’s SSP had distributed nearly 260,000 sterile syringes — about 75,000 more than they collected.
In 2023, the exchange gave out more than 800,000 syringes total, while collecting about 575,000.
According to the Maine Department of Health and Human Service’s 2023 annual SSP report, syringe exchanges statewide distributed a total of 3,676,315 needles in 2023 — roughly 500,000 more needles than they collected.
Rauscher outlined several strategies that the city’s Public Health Department has taken to address the issue of improperly discarded used needles.
One of the proposed measures under consideration by the city is to allocate settlement funds from a nationwide lawsuit against opioid manufacturers toward a syringe “buyback” program, effectively paying drug users cash at the SSP to incentivize them to turn in their used syringes.
[RELATED: City of Portland May Use Opioid Settlement Funds to ‘buyback’ Used Syringes…]
Another strategy that Rauscher said the city has recently begun working on is a “Harm Reduction Ambassadors” program, through which the city pays active drug users who are clients at the syringe exchange to conduct outreach and education “in their community.”
Weighing in on the issue after Rauscher’s presentation, Portland Mayor Mark Dion informed the City Council members that he plans to introduce a resolution to implement a 1:1 transaction ratio at the syringe exchange. Such an order would return the city’s needle exchange clinic to its mode of operation prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Mills Administration’s suspension of the exchange rules.
“When I go across the streets and speak to business owners and residents, they see this as a pretty significant issue,” Mayor Dion said regarding the issue of used needles littering the city.
Dion said that the Portland residents he speaks to are “in awe” of the number of syringe’s that the exchange distributes.
“To me the simple harm reduction is each injection, that’s a life and death event, and the fact that we can provide them ample opportunities to succeed in an unfortunate demise troubles me tremendously,” Dion said
The Portland mayor also expressed skepticism towards the Public Health Department’s “Harm Reduction Ambassadors” program.
“I do raise an eyebrow at the possibility that somebody who’s completely captured by their addiction can function as ambassadors, but my skepticism is always open to hard data,” he said.
[RELATED: Mills Admin Proceeds with $15,000 Study into ‘Safe Consumption Sites’…]
City Councilor Anna Trevorrow, on the other hand, claimed that the city’s SSP “has been exceptionally successful,” and praised the city for doubling down on “progressive tactics” rather than blaming the exchange program for the problem of discarded needles.
“I am encouraged that when we see an increase in needles left on the ground, we kind of double down our efforts to invest in these progressive tactics to deal with it, as opposed to a more regressive model, where we would say the program’s not working, that we’re actually causing the problem — because I don’t think that’s what happening,” Trevorrow said.
Trevorrow then cautioned her fellow committee members that concerns from constituents regarding discarded needles littering the city may be rooted in “stigma” or “fear.”
Councilor Kate Sykes, a self-described socialist, also pushed back on Dion’s criticism of the syringe exchange program, saying that she is also “in awe of the number of needles that we distribute, but in a good way.”
Sykes argued that having the syringe exchange was far cheaper than having an outbreak of a communicable disease.
“There really is not a public health risk to the fact that there is a needle on the ground,” Sykes said. “It’s not trading one public health emergency for another public health emergency.”
“There just is no risk really for this,” she said.
Sykes also said that the city should encourage Portland residents to pick up the discarded hypodermic needles themselves, adding “they’re not gonna jump up and bite ya.”
Sykes claims run directly counter to the health advice provided by the Maine CDC.
According to the Maine CDC, improperly discarded syringes pose a “serious public health risk” due to needle stick injuries that can potentially transmit blood-borne diseases such as Hepatitis B and HIV/AIDS.
While the U.S. CDC claims that SSPs reduce the transmission of blood-borne diseases such as HIV, diagnoses of HIV have been steadily increasing in Maine since the COVID-19 pandemic, per CDC data compiled by Emory University’s AIDSVu project.
In other words, at the same time Maine has relaxed the rules around needle collection and drastically increased needle distribution — all on the premise that doing so would reduce the transmission of blood-borne illnesses — the number of HIV diagnoses have actually increased.
In 2022, Maine reported 41 new diagnosed cases of HIV, up from 31 cases in 2021, and 15 in 2020.
During the same period, according to Maine DHHS, syringe exchange programs across the state experienced a marked increase in the number of enrollees receiving sterile syringes.
In 2021, SSPs in Maine had a total of 5,403 enrollees, which increased to 6,718 in 2022 and over 8,300 in 2023.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="30814 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=30814">19 Comments
Well then Kate, you volunteer to go clean up the needles.
Better idea, lets just sweep-em up and dump them on her lawn.
If you want some more HIV / AIDS cases just go get some Haitian Illegals and move them into YOUR city . New Mainers !
Help me understand : So we give them ( the drug addicts ) the needles so they won’t catch diseases and die , but they die sooner or later anyway when they do the needle type drugs.
What am I missing here ?
No thanks Ms Sykes ….YOU go pick them up !
Awesome! Portland, ME’s own “Red (Communist) / Green (Islamist) Alliance” with Kate Sykes and Pious Ali to help destroy the city. There are reasons why Leftists and stealth jihadists run for local office and join forces.
let’s live in garbage, now that’s a plan
Now you see how insane liberals are. Vote or force them out.
What a stupid thing to say.
Liberalism is a mental disorder. —Michael Savage
They don’t live in reality. No objective morality so they just make it up as they go. https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/health-wellness/health-encyclopedia/he.puncture-wounds.pntwd
Having ridden as an EMT with a local ambulance service for 12 years I was well taught that needle sticks from casually handling needles is a real risk for contracting AIDS and other fatal diseases. Sykes espouses a level of ignorance that appears to be driven by her leftist leanings.
The state government adhers closely to CDC guidelines – mandates, lockdowns – until it is against their interest to do so. “CDC guidelines” was cover to strip every right you or your kids had
Here, however, the CDC policy – adhered to in every hospital in the State – is merely a suggestion, and how dare you even imply that needles could be harmful!
See how this goes?
There should be an IQ test for ellected.
What a moron. Ever been to a medical lab or seen what they have on ambulances? SHARPS CONTAINERS… used to protect the health care workers from getting accidentally jabbed. Maybe Kate should volunteer to go around barefoot or in her open toed sandals and pick up used syringes.
And you folks voted her in!
Her reaction would be quite different if Mainers were littering the streets with bullets.
Sykes-another leftie twit. Problem is these twits sure can do a lot of damage.
I grew up in Portland in the 1950’s & 1960’s during a time of great economic upheaval in Maine. Maine was on an economic decline and it showed, especially in Portland. I remember my dad saying that Maine was a great place to live as long as you didn’t have to work there.
Fortunately, some forward thinkers saw a diamond in the rough in Portland and began to turn it around. Slums were torn down, Commercial street was repurposed from a broken down warehouse district into the Old Port. By the 80’s Portland became a thriving place where people wanted to live. There were jobs again, it was affordable, low crime and folks with young families, like ours, could buy a house and settle in.
That honeymoon lasted about 20 years until the invasion of the ultra liberal, lefty wokesters. As Portland was sliding into social decline, the city was starting to look more like Seattle and San Francisco. A coddling city government seemed more intent on attracting drug addicted zombies, street bums and easy welfare seekers than they were in protecting hard working taxpayers. Cloward and Piven at work.
It was evident, to us, where Portland was going but we weren’t going with it. So we, along with our daughter and her family, moved out. We took our high paying jobs and their associated tax revenue with us and have been much better off for it. So long, Portland and good luck. It was nice knowing you.
Too bad they aren’t magnetic.
…so applying the same logic, guns are not the problem… Gun Control: teaching the proper use, safety, function and understanding that its the human mind behind them that is in control of the object.