Indiana’s syringe exchange programs are poised to continue for another five years as both legislative chambers have now supported extending those efforts aimed at stemming the spread of disease among people using intravenous drugs.
Indiana House members voted 70-22 on Wednesday in favor of a bill allowing counties to keep the programs offering sterile needles while placing new restrictions upon them.
A final agreement on Senate Bill 91 is still needed, but the state Senate previously backed continuing the programs with fewer restrictions.
The programs face a renewal deadline this summer after first being authorized under then-Gov. Mike Pence in 2015 following an HIV outbreak in rural southern Indiana’s Scott County that was spread through needle sharing and infected around 200 people.
House Public Health Committee Chair Rep. Brad Barrett, R-Richmond, urged support of the continuation, pointing out that no state money goes toward the exchange programs.
“Not a single state dollar, that is unless the patient develops hepatitis or HIV, and it’s frequently state dollars that are paying for those expensive treatments,” said Barrett, who is a retired general surgeon.
Six of Indiana’s 92 counties now have such programs offering sterile needles, disease testing and addiction counseling referrals, but they face persistent criticism of enabling illegal drug use and the spreading of health dangers from discarded needles.
Changes made by the House since the Senate endorsed the extension last month would require a participant to present identification proving residency in the exchange program’s region and limit the program operators to providing one sterile needle for each used one handed in.
Other new restrictions would prohibit needle distributions within 1,000 feet of a school, licensed day care center or a religious worship building without their permission.
The House also shortened the Senate-endorsed bill’s extension of the programs from 10 years to five years, so its authorization would expire again in summer 2031.
Bill sponsor Rep. Ed Clere, R-New Albany, said the programs “help get people in the door” by providing sterile needles but then help steer them toward other services.
“Statewide, they made thousands of referrals to substance use treatment, thousands of referrals to HIV testing,” Clere said. “They distributed naloxone. They made referrals to behavioral health, immunizations, housing referrals.”
A frequent criticism of the programs is that they provide more sterile needles to participants than are collected in return. The state health department reported an 88% return rate in 2023, but that still meant more than 200,000 needles distributed than collected.
Rep. Matt Hostettler, R-Patoka, said the state is sending a “mixed message” by allowing such needle exchanges.
He pointed to the health department report’s data showing about 11.9 million sterile needles distributed during 2015-2023, with 9.9 million returned.
“This data doesn’t show how many of those 2 million extra needles were somebody’s first needle,” Hostettler said. “This data doesn’t show how many of those 2 million extra needles were somebody’s last needle.”
Supporters contend counting individual used needles is dangerous so they weigh containers and estimate the number of needles returned.