(FARGO, ND) – The City of Fargo will be keeping its needle exchange program.
In a 3-2 vote Monday night, the Fargo City Commission voted to keep the program, which is run by Fargo Cass Public Health’s Harm Reduction Program.
“Needles are found discarded haphazardly throughout the city,” Fargo City Commissioner Michelle Turnberg, who introduced the motion, said in a memo to fellow commissioners prior to the meeting Monday night.
At Monday night’s meeting, Robyn Litke Sall, with Fargo Cass Public Health’s Harm Reduction team, told commissioners that the program began in 2018 as ‘one of the solutions that we were looking to help face the opioid crisis that had hit here locally.’ She said 31 deaths were a result of the crisis.
“We were looking for anything and everything to help us reduce the number of deaths from the opioid crisis,” Litke Sall said.
Turnberg asked Litke Sall why education can’t be the only part of the program – without providing the needles.
“If we don’t provide the needles, what we will see is we will see more sharps litter,” Litke Sall said. “We will see more needle sticks, and we will also see an increase in rates of HIV and Hepatitis C.”
Mayor Tim Mahoney said program, although controversial when it first began, has been successful.
Commissioner Dave Piepkorn said that the program is ‘enabling’ drug use.
“You’re not enabling drug use, you’re enabling getting them to treatment,” Mahoney said.
Commissioners John Strand, Denise Kolpack and Mahoney voted to keep the program in place.
