Take Back Santa Cruz - Needles Solution Team

TBSC has a long angry history regarding syringes in public, syringe services and substance users. On the surface , one might think they truly are concerned with needles in public. In 2012 now convicted felon Dylan Griener filmed a drug den on West Cliff Drive . This video catapulted the community into the very real heroin use epidemic the nation and Santa Cruz is experiencing. In 2013 Santa Cruz County HSA took over the syringe program for the county and moved the program to the Emeline campus. In 2014 at a Board Of Supervisors meeting Analicia Cube spoke and said " Take Back Santa Cruz has never said to shut down the exchange." At the time, the group was pushing for marking of syringes so origin of syringes could be determined. ) by opening Sharps containers, manually counting. Critics found this variance from Best Practices expensive , impractical , and a dangerous witch hunt on the poor who use the program as opposed to those who can afford to buy 30 syringes at a time at one of the many local pharmacies. A county ordinance was put in place that required pharmacies that sell syringes be required to also accept syringes in Sharps containers, thereby participating in the disposal of syringes. With campaign season around the corner, TBSC appears to be ramping up the needles in public issue again with emphasis only on the County Program. The following screen captures illustrate the level of harassment TBSC will turn to in order to attain their goals which , at the time, was to close down the Beach Flats Volunteer run program. Samantha Olden has dressed up "like a junkie" to impersonate a client of the exchange back in 2013. Her good buddy Lisa Sokolowki Litten accompanies her.

Not much has changed in TBSC. Continued photographs of syringes show up on the closed Facebook page followed by a rather uninformed conversation with comments made by admin Kim Laney to "shut er down" Who agrees with her but fellow admin Samantha Simon Olden.

In 2014 Gabrielle Korte submitted a letter to the Board of Supervisors on October 2013 and she managed to hit all the TBSC high points. A trifecta !

" Shut down the day services at the Homeless Services Center, Shut down the Needles Exchange ( just another form of enabling ) End our "Catch and Release" form of justice ....if more jail space is needed , then find it.... " TBSC classist brilliance !

In 2016 , here are three of the admin, spokespeople , board members or whatever they call themselves advocating for shutting down a significant Public Health program ....because they think so. This illustrates their Republican Right wing leanings and despite the fact that they advocate for evidence and data in the new revised current mission statement , it appears that it must only be the evidences that they manufacture. At no point does TBSC identify who is on the Needles Solution Team.
With such an official title, one might think there was a physician or someone from the County Public Health Department involved but I would guess that it would be members such as Samantha, Gabrielle or Kim who detest syringes or more appropriately the people who use them.

Wouldn't the Facebook page of a community group be a great place to link readers to data front the CDC or the World Health Organization siting data that clearly states that needle litter greatly is reduced by the presence of a syringe program ?
Wouldn't the Facebook page of a community group be a great place to submit data from the above organizations that demonstrate that the presence of a Syringe Program has not been proven to elevate crime in the area where it operates?
Wouldn't the Facebook page of a community group be a great place to submit data regarding a tragic outbreak of HIV in Austin , Indiana in 2015 due to sharing of needles. There were 150 plus cases reported in a small community of under 5,000 as the Governor of Indiana quickly approved of a a syringe program.

It might be ...but then again, that would be evidence based best practices and clearly TBSC thrives using hyperbole, fear mongering and false facts to achieve their political goals " for the sake of safety" of course.

The real question is , how safe are we with Take Back Santa Cruz ?