D.C.’s Needle Exchange Funding in Jeopardy Again

A recent amendment to the House appropriations bill for the District of Columbia would prevent the city from funding any needle-exchange programs that are located within 1,000 feet of schools, day-care centers, pools, parks, and other locations where children gather, the Washington Post reported July 31. 

The bill would effectively reverse a 2007 law that allowed the District to use its tax dollars to pay for needle-exchange programs. 

D.C. officials, including Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), are working to have the amendment dropped.

A similar amendment was recently included in another House bill that would lift a longstanding ban on spending federal money to pay for needle-exchange programs. If that bill plus the D.C. appropriation bill pass unaltered, the District would be the only municipality in the country prohibited from using federal or local tax money to pay for clean-needle programs.

Opponents say the ban would cover almost the entire city. “I don’t see how any site can operate with those kinds of restrictions,” said Flora Hamilton, executive director of Family and Medical Counseling Services, which has handed out more than 100,000 clean needles within the last year, and is located near D.C.’s Anacostia Park. 

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) said he sponsored the amendment because “children should not be out playing kickball and watching people exchange needles for illegal drug use.”