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Lopez, Kenia <br />From: <br />Folmar, Heather <br />Sent: <br />Monday, March 18, 2019 3:06 PM <br />To: <br />eComment <br />Subject: <br />Senate Bill 689 <br />Honorable Council Members: <br />I am a librarian at the Santa Ana Public Library. From 2016 to 2018 a Needle Exchange <br />Program operated weekly in the Civic Center Plaza where the library is located. Recently <br />a needle exchange program has been scheduled to be established again here in Santa <br />Ana. <br />I have been an employee and dedicated supporter of the Santa Ana Public Library since <br />1991. I have seen the effects of the presence of needles and other drug apparatus in <br />the Civic Center: diminishing the usefulness of the Library; presenting the Library and <br />our Civic Center as unwelcoming destinations for the community; making the Civic <br />center an unsafe working environment for city, , county and state employees. <br />As proposed, the Needle Exchange Program had disastrous effects in my community. <br />Programs like these, as well intentioned as they may be, have an extremely harmful and <br />long-lasting negative impact when implemented without local input and control. I am <br />writing to express my support for SB 689 which simply aims to give local control of <br />needle exchange programs. I believe this is vital to the efficacy of such programs. This <br />bill will allow local municipalities to build wrap around services and an entire continuum <br />of care in conjunction with the needle exchanges. It will allow the municipalities to set <br />aside funding for treatment programs for addiction, mental health services, disease <br />prevention, education and many other resources that are so desperately needed. <br />The State Department currently controlling needle exchanges does not have the benefit <br />of intimately knowing what each individual municipality needs, what the demographics <br />are, where things are located, such as schools and after school programs where children <br />are playing. Although needle exchange may be an asset to some, putting the safety of <br />children at risk is not beneficial. The harm to the many far outweighs the service to the <br />few. Local municipalities should be able to work in collaboration with service providers <br />and residents to determine how they can best make needle exchanges work within their <br />jurisdiction. <br />Please accept this email as my statement of support for drafting a resolution supporting <br />SB 689. <br />Thank you, <br />Heather Folmar <br />W_ <br />