Concerns remain about discarded needles; black market trade from needle access program

Since the city’s needle access program began in 2016, more than 1.9 million clean needles have been distributed to intravenous drug users in the Columbus area.The goal - to curb the spread of disease and get people into treatment.In addition to the needles, more than 1900 drug users have requested Naloxone from the program – up from 811 requests in 2016.The number of people also self-reporting as having Hepatitis C has also increased -- from 523 in 2016 to 1193 reported cases in 2017