Needle-exchange van draws fire downtown
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
"Blondie," a heroin addict, said she wouldn't bother to change her used needles if not for the syringe exchange van that parks close to the Chinatown streets she calls home.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
Blondie, who asked that her real name not be used, comes every day to bring her dirty needles to the van operated by the Community Health Outreach Worker program.
Needles, condoms, and information are dispensed from a van along N. Kukui St. Some nearby residents say the van runs counter to crime-fighting and improvement projects.
Another addict, "Johnny," said he is trying to get off drugs and is thankful to the project for keeping him HIV-free.
"I remember when everyone shared needles," Johnny said. "I can't buy them in stores, so this is my only choice."
Many area residents, though, take a different view of the van parked in their neighborhood to serve drug addicts and prostitutes. And the residents are asking why the state-run free-condom and needle-exchange van has been operating on streets near their homes for three years, plenty of time to find a permanent site.
The issue will be taken up tonight at the Downtown Neighborhood Board meeting.
Dolores Mollring, a board member and head of the area neighborhood watch, said the van, which parks daily except Sunday on Kukui Street between Nu'uanu and Maunakea streets, brings drug dealers and users and prostitutes into the area — along with associated crime — and should be moved.
Mollring said the downtown-Chinatown area is part of a successful Weed & Seed program, and having the van in the same area defeats the purpose of the crime-fighting and neighborhood improvement effort.
"I think it is a good program," Mollring said of the needle exchange and condom program. "I just don't believe it should be in a residential area. In a two-block radius (of the van) there are at least 6,000 people. Kukui Plaza has 980 units right across the street."
Public meeting
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Who: Downtown Neighborhood Board
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What: Meeting to discuss the free-condom and syringe-exchange program van parked on residential streets
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When: 7 p.m. today
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Where: Pauahi Community Center, 171 N. Pauahi St.
Suzette Smetka, executive director of the exchange program, said the van rotates among several sites on O'ahu where concentrations of drug addicts live, including Kalihi, Waipahu, parts of the North Shore and Windward side.
Smetka said the purpose of the program is to stop the spread of AIDS and other diseases by giving out condoms and exchanging needles with no cost or repercussions.
Last year, 219,218 needles were exchanged in Hawai'i. It is estimated that there are 10,000 to 20,000 intravenous drug users in the state and 43 percent of them live in the Kalihi/Palama and downtown areas.
The syringe-exchange program is credited in large part with keeping the number of intravenous drug users infected with HIV — the virus that causes AIDS — to less than 1 percent, compared with other states where a 30 to 40 percent infection rate is common.
"The services need to be accessible to the people that need to use them," Smetka said. "The Chinatown area is where there is heavy drug activity. That is why it is there."
Smetka said if there is a better location, such as a church or office space that is available, they would be happy to move. They hope to get space in the state-owned old train depot building across King Street from A'ala Park, after it is renovated.
"That would be a good location and meet everyone's needs and concerns," Smetka said. "We've been looking for a space for three years. You can send us to the North Shore and then you're going to have an HIV epidemic breaking out. We need to stay in this area."
Reach James Gonser at 535-2431 or jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com.
