Jan. 21—GRAND FORKS — The City Council might once again consider the issue of public syringe disposal after the Grand Forks County Commission on Jan. 16 voted to ask the city to do away with the program.

The commission voted 3-2 to request the city end the program, with Commissioner Mark Rustad arguing the program

“condon(es) intravenous drug use.”

The council had previously discussed the program in December, and in a spur-of-the-moment motion to end the program, voted 4-3 to keep it.

According to GFPH Director Tess Wall, based on her discussion with colleagues across North Dakota, Grand Forks is the only city considering ending its program.

The Syringe Service Program, often called the needle exchange program, provides services to those injecting substances and are at risk of disease transmission because of substance use or reuse of injection equipment.

The primary goals of the program are to reduce the spread of Hepatitis C and HIV, establish relationships and drive positive change, and reduce opioid overdoses and opioid-related deaths in the community.

In the last two years, the Grand Forks Public Health Syringe Service Program has averaged 42 visits a month.

The program was given the green light by the Grand Forks City Council in 2019 and has served 264 participants.

If the council decides to take up the issue again, the earliest any change would occur to the program is at the City Council’s next regular meeting, on Feb. 5. What, if any, change to the program would look like remains to be seen, however — if the program is ended, GFPH would like some time to end it.

“The authority lies within the City Council, so if the motion is for immediacy then that’s what we comply by,” Wall said. “It is much preferred to have an off-ramp; this is a sector of our population that we want to maintain a relationship with, and so I think having that buffer, whether it’s 30 days (rather than immediate), would be very helpful to ensure that we can treat this situation with as much dignity as possible.”

In addition to the needle exchange component of the program, the program also connects with Hepatitis C and HIV testing, safer sex supplies, connection to substance use disorder treatments, and many other services to make the community as a whole healthier.

Local data is one issue public officials have had with the program. Getting data is hard because of health privacy laws (like HIPAA), the small participant population, and the multifaceted and multitude of programs that are a part of substance abuse treatment in the community.

“Sometimes in programs, we put so many entry barriers that the intent of the program is no longer what’s functioning anymore,” Wall said. She said many who use these types of programs don’t have trust in the systems and, therefore, lowering the barrier is very important.

When the program was first introduced, GFPH gave presentations to both the County Commission and City Council. It also held a public information meeting at the GFPH offices. According to the program’s operating plan from 2019, then-Mayor Mike Brown and Grand Forks Police Chief Mark Nelson gave their support for the plan, and the majority of the Grand Forks City Council at that time voted in support for the program.

Opioid Response Coordinator Michael Dulitz also said at the August 2019 GHPD informational meeting that the program had “received the support from our law enforcement and they look forward to having a chance to reduce their risk of encountering syringes and that they have a place to refer some of the clients.”

The program uses no local funds for the salaries of the workers nor the materials given out. The salaries are funded with federal money and the materials are through private grants. The program is held at Spectra Health and not in GFPH’s office in the county office building.

Wall said the program’s initial goals continue to be met and that these programs are backed up with data from the Centers for Disease Control, which says individuals in these programs are five times more likely to seek treatment. In North Dakota, syringe service programs exist in Fargo, Minot, Valley City and Mandan.

“When we talk about the potential that this program leaves our community, we have to be mindful of what that means for Fargo’s program,” Wall said. “With any decision, there are unintended consequences, whether folks want to acknowledge that or not.”