CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Mayor Danny Jones says his administration will have some new facts and figures to present about needle use before a new city council task force holds its roundtable discussion on April 24.
Thirteen council members are part of the new task force looking at the future of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department’s needle exchange program that was suspended last month after Jones moved toward making hypodermic needles in the city illegal again.
Leading council members wanted one representative each from the police department and fire department to serve on the task force but the departments declined. Jones said they will have their own roundtable.
“Crime is going down and we think we’ll be able to quantify that,” Jones said Tuesday on 580 Live, the talk show he hosts on WCHS Radio.
Jones said since the suspension of the program there have been fewer calls to police about needles being found across the city.
“So the calls have gone down. We would just like for this to go away,” he said.
Jones said the city should throw its support behind West Virginia Health Right’s harm reduction (needle exchange) program.
“We think that (program) is enough for a city this size,” Jones said. “In other words, they have 150 patients and they picked up 15 from the needle mill closing down at the health department.”
Health Right has been operating its needle exchange program since 2011. Jones donated $5,000 to it last month.