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Lopez, Kenia <br />From: <br />Sjule, Kelli <br />Sent: <br />Monday, March 18, 2019 3:55 PM <br />To: <br />eComment <br />Subject: <br />Support SB 689 <br />Honorable Council Members: <br />From 2016 to 2018 a Needle Exchange Program operated weekly in the Civic Center Plaza where the library is <br />located. Recently a needle exchange program was scheduled to be established again in Santa Ana. <br />I witnessed the Needle Exchange Program had disastrous effects in my community. Programs like these, as well <br />intentioned as they may be, have an extremely harmful and long-lasting negative impact when implemented without <br />accountable management practices from the needle exchange partners who in our situation denied our requests to <br />label their needles so we could identify which had been distributed through the exchange program for transparency, <br />course -correction, and data collection. I am writing to express my support for SB 689 which aims to give local control of <br />needle exchange programs. I believe this is vital to the efficacy of such programs. This bill will allow local municipalities <br />to build wrap around services and an entire continuum of care in conjunction with the needle exchanges. It will allow <br />the municipalities to set aside funding for treatment programs for addiction, mental health services, disease prevention, <br />education and many other resources that are so desperately needed. <br />The State Department currently controlling needle exchanges does not have the benefit of intimately knowing what <br />each individual municipality needs, what the demographics are, where things are located, such as schools and after <br />school programs where children are playing. Although needle exchange may be an asset to some, putting the public <br />safety of children at risk is not a just or acceptable trade-off. Children, and not members of the public dependent on the <br />use of these needles, should be our priority. The harm to the many far outweighs the service to the few. Local <br />municipalities should be able to work in collaboration with service providers and residents to determine how they can <br />best make needle exchanges work within their jurisdiction. <br />Please accept this email as my statement of support for drafting a resolution supporting SB 689. <br />Thank you, <br />KeW Sjule <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />