On Monday night, the Denver city council voted to allow needle exchanges, which could distribute drug paraphernalia, next to Denver schools and day care centers. Specifically, the Denver council voted 8-5 in favor of a bill that removes the existing three-site cap on the number of needle exchanges allowed in the city.
The bill also strikes language from the municipal code that prohibits operating needle exchanges within 1,000 feet of elementary or secondary schools or day care centers. According to the Denver Gazette, Councilman Darrell Watson, who voted against the bill because it eliminates the distancing requirement from schools, said residents in his district “have been clear” that “removing the distance restriction is something that they do not support.” At a December hearing, she stated, “I can tell you that the in-person needle exchange program is a terrible neighbor.”
National Review details the drug locations:
The sites provide illegal-drug users with clean needles and syringes to prevent the spread of diseases and provide a place for drug users to dispose of used paraphernalia. Some exchanges offer smoking pipes and overdose-reversal drugs, and addicts can also be offered counseling. Illegal drugs are not allowed to be injected at the exchange sites.
A Gazette editorial last week said the 1,000-foot buffer between needle exchanges and schools is “a standard feature of zoning codes in other cities and hardly is a lot to ask. Indeed, it’s a modest restriction on a supposed community service that, by definition, serves people who are breaking the law.”
The editorial adds that needle exchanges “shouldn’t be tolerated at all,” in part because they “make it easier for addicts to stay on a self-destructive path that likely will end in an overdose” and because spent drug debris will inevitably end up in the city’s parks and playgrounds.
Democratic mayor Mike Johnston has five days to sign or veto the bill. He has expressed skepticism about it: “We believe there is an adequate supply of needle exchange programs to meet the current demands,” his spokeswoman said recently in a statement to the media.
But, it’s always “for the children.”