Santa Cruz Grand Jury investigates County’s Syringe Service Program

The Santa Cruz Grand Jury has finished investigating the County’s Syringe Service Program.

The program, also known as SSP has been in place since 2013. The Santa Cruz Health Services Agency implemented the program to reduce the damage associated with using unsterile needles, also to offer counseling and rehabilitation to users and to address the communities concern with syringes being disposed through out the Santa Cruz County.

Some people in the community have expressed concern regarding the lack of communication by county agencies.

“The number one need for improvement between the SSP and the community is honesty. Stop thinking that the community is trying to come at you, start realizing that we’re not only here, but we are paying attention,” says Analicia Cube, founder of Take Back Santa Cruz.

In the initial report the Grand Jury suggests that the county agencies hold more public meetings to open dialogue between the SSP and community. In response the HSA says they will be implementing those meetings soon.

Another reccommendation made by the Grand Jury was to have the Board of Supervisors allocate funds for a permanent budget for the SSP to function as mandated per SSP Policy and Procedures. The Board of Supervisors responded there are new and probable funding opportunities available for needle exchange programs and the Board is going to evaluate the opportunities.

The report says there are only three county disposal kiosks to dispose of syringes. The HSA says they will be looking at different locations to find where kiosks would be most effective.

Cube says scattering more disposable kiosks around Santa Cruz County is not a solution. “what we find is most people using the kiosks are people who are diabetic and need to dispose of their needles. So the kiosk program isn’t gonna work unless the people using the drugs drop them in there, and the way that drug use works they’re just not going to do that.”

One suggestion Cube makes is partenering up with pharmacies who have mandatory take back programs by putting kiosks near those rather than other spots in the county.

SSP also works closely with Janus, a treatment program in Santa Cruz. The HSA says through SSP, clients have been able to get the help they need from treatment centers. Director of operations with Janus, Jaime Campos says they have hope this opiod crisis will improve over time. Campos says Janus supports SSP’s and they have been shown to work when deployed correctly.