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NJ expands harm reduction efforts for drug addicts

5 minutes reading time

Joe Malinconico
| Paterson Press

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PATERSON — One by one, homeless drug users living in an encampment along the railroad tracks in the city's 4th Ward trudged through a hole in the fence when they saw harm control workers in a nearby parking lot.

A young woman with an infected cut on her neck from injecting heroin asked for her wound to be cleaned.

A man in his thirties with several large, infected abscesses on his legs came to pick up his weekly supply of 10 new needles.

A woman who called herself “Blue Barbie” brought 33 used syringes to exchange for new ones.

“I love these guys,” said Ariel Smith, 34, of Paterson, nodding toward the outreach team at the Tier1Recovery community program after receiving a safe sex kit, a safe smoking kit, a pack of needles and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

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“They are a blessing,” continued Smith, who is blind in her right eye. “Now I don't have to share anything. There's nothing better than being safe.”

Allan Higgins, the man with the abscesses, agreed: “They give me everything I need to be safe when I’m high.”

This scene on a Monday morning in Paterson reflected the dramatic changes in the harm reduction movement now sweeping New Jersey. The state government this year increased its annual funding for such programs from $4.5 million to $16.5 million and also approved increasing the number of harm reduction centers in New Jersey from seven to 45.

The changes go far beyond monetary amounts and the number of programs.

Some of the items distributed by Tier1Recovery staff — including glass flasks for smoking crack and hammer pipes for heroin — were considered illegal drug paraphernalia by police until Governor Phil Murphy signed a harm reduction tool bill last January.

Distribution of tubes, needles, drug testing kits for xylazine or tranquilizers

Under the new law, pipes, needles and other drug paraphernalia distributed by harm reduction programs have essentially been decriminalized. Recipients receive registration cards from the programs that tell police that the items came from harm reduction efforts and that the person in possession of them should not be charged with possession of paraphernalia.

“We want to meet people where they are,” said Greta Anschuetz, New Jersey Department of Health's deputy director for HIV, STD and TB services. “We want everyone to be safe and protected.”

Other resources distributed by harm reduction programs in New Jersey include kits that allow people to test their drugs to see if they contain the potentially deadly fentanyl or xylazine. Known on the street as “tranq,” this sedative can have severe effects on a person's breathing and heart rate.

Murphy set the stage for the current growth of harm reduction centers by signing legislation in January 2022 that changed the process for approving the operation of such programs.

Previously, local municipal officials had to pass an ordinance allowing the implementation of these programs in their cities. This requirement, advocates said, hampered efforts to open new harm reduction centers. The 2022 law shifted the authority to approve harm reduction programs to the state government.

Sandy Gibson, a professor at the College of New Jersey who has worked as a drug counselor and is an advocate for harm reduction programs, said the state's recent changes in the law come at a critical time.

“The drug supply is becoming so toxic that people are dying everywhere,” Gibson said.

Harm reduction workers are trained not to pressure drug users to quit. The goal is to protect them, not to persuade them to give up, say harm reduction workers.

Gibson said that's because not every user needs to stop using drugs. In her experience as a counselor, many of her clients only have drug-related problems that can be traced back to the criminal justice system. Providing clean syringes and new pipes can save drug users from deadly consequences, she said.

“Dead people don’t recover,” Gibson said.

$24 million from lawsuit against opioid pharmaceutical companies

Anschuetz, the state's health officer, said her biggest challenge right now is finding a way to maintain recent increases in funding and programs. New Jersey is using $24 million of the money the state received from litigation with opioid pharmaceutical companies to increase harm reduction funding by $12 million a year for the current and next fiscal year.

It is unclear where the state will get the money to maintain mitigation spending at current levels in 2027.

Anschuetz and Gibson both said they believe the spread of harm reduction programs in New Jersey will reduce the number of fatal overdoses and HIV infections in the state.

Tier1Recovery in Paterson is receiving $100,000 from the state's mitigation fund, said the program's executive director, Willie Moody.

Tier1Recovey also sends opioid response teams to provide another type of outreach to Paterson's drug users. The opioid teams encourage addicts to seek treatment and connect them to drug programs.

The somewhat divergent efforts reflect the fact that one approach does not work for everyone, Moody said.

“Some people are not ready for treatment,” Moody said, explaining why harm reduction teams do not push that option.

Opioid response team members are accompanied by a plainclothes police officer, while harm reduction workers are not accompanied by police officers. Moody acknowledged that there has been tension between needle exchange programs and police in recent years, but that has not been a problem recently, he said.

“They have cooperated very well with us,” Moody said of local police officers.

Paterson police declined to comment on the increase in harm reduction programs that distribute syringes and whistles in the city.

Paterson Black Lives Matter – best known for its activism against what it calls police misconduct – also runs a harm reduction program in the city.

“We're fighting to protect the marginalized people in society,” said BLM director Zellie Thomas. “It's about getting people away from the more dangerous forms of drug use, like sharing needles. We're doing everything we can to help them stay alive.”

Shampoo, insect repellent, a tent

During Tier1Recovery's harm reduction work near the camp by the train tracks, people approached the social workers asking for things other than drug supplies. One woman was happy to get some shampoo. Another got bug spray to ward off the mosquitoes in August. A 30-year-old man asked for a tent.

“I don’t want to have to keep sleeping outside,” he said.

Samantha Boseski, the harm reduction program director, said she didn't have any tents that day but told the man she would try to find one. The woman, who called herself Blue Barbie, said she felt like a “functional addict” who wasn't ready to seek treatment.

“Maybe I’ll get there one day,” she said.

The woman's plans to continue taking drugs did not seem to bother Boseski.

“It’s really up to the individual to say when they’re ready to stop,” the social worker said.

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