(INDIANAPOLIS) – Needle exchange programs in Marion County and eight others have new life after votes in the House and Senate.
Nine counties have instituted needle exchange, but the programs must end next June unless legislators extend them. The House and Senate have each approved a one-year extension of needle exchange, just a month after the Senate rejected a bill to extend them permanently.
State health officials have pleaded with legislators to grant at least the one-year extension to give them time to make their case for the longer extension. They say the existing programs have sharply reduced infection rates of HIV and hepatitis, though the infection rate remains triple the natural average.
Both extensions are folded into larger health bills — negotiators will have to agree on a final version and pass it again before the legislature adjourns for the year on next Wednesday.
