BRADENTON, Fla. — Christine Loomes has been there for dozens of Bradenton residents as they've taken their last breath.
- Bill would allow communities to create needle exchange programs
- State lawmakers have approved bill
- Believed that program would cut down on transmission cases
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As the executive director of Downtown Ministries, she serves daily in the community, creating relationships with many who struggle with addiction.
"We sit bedside with people in the hospital on a weekly basis that are fighting infections from what we assume is dirty needles. That's what the hospital is telling us," she said. "So we're losing probably as many people to the infections as we are to the overdoses."
State lawmakers have approved a bill that would allow communities to create needle exchange programs. It would allow people to swap dirty syringes with clean ones and in exchange get information on resources for recovery. Right now, Miami-Dade is the only county to have anything like it in the state.
Manatee County Healthcare Services Manager Joshua Barnett has visited a Miami clinic and watched the process first hand.
"People come in and they have an anonymous number, they bring in syringes that they may have found or may have utilized, and they obtain clean syringes and other resources to help prevent acquiring or transferring illnesses to others," said Barnett.
This idea is that the program will help to cut down on the transmission of devastating diseases like HIV and Hepatitis C.
"It also eliminates the potential of having a drug paraphernalia charge. It eliminates the lag time of seeking out recovery services," Barnett added.
The Kaiser Family Foundation reports there are currently 320 legal exchange programs in 41 states.
If signed into law, it is not clear how this program will look in other Florida counties.