Rockford IL police raid needle exchange operation for 2nd time

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phactor

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ROCKFORD — The director of a needle exchange program says he doesn’t know what people are going to do without his service now that the city has shut down two buildings associated with it.

JBryan Latham, director of the Total Health Awareness Team, also known as THAT Place, said he accepts and disposes of 500,000 used syringes and gives away fewer than 100,000 new clean ones every year as part of his disease prevention and community outreach program that he’s operated for several years on Seventh Street.

After the city’s action Wednesday, Latham found himself without access to his program’s headquarters or supplies.

The reason? The city says Latham is running the needle exchange program illegally.

According to city zoning laws — which were revised in 2008 concerning needle exchange programs — Latham needs a special-use permit to operate on private property, either in a building or parking lot, or a business solicitation permit to operate on public property.

City officials say Latham has neither and must stop operating until he obtains a proper permit.

On Wednesday, Latham said he was going to keep helping people obtain clean and safe needles and have a safe place to dispose of needles no matter what. He has signs posted on the outside of his office at 218 Seventh St. with a telephone number to call for services.

“I have people across the state who need supplies,” Latham said, fighting back tears. “We have kids we are trying to help. ... I’m going to be here. I’m not going to budge. They’ll have to drag me to jail.”

Neighborhood complaints
City officials say they’ve been getting complaints from neighbors about needles on the sidewalks and business owners who think THAT Place is bad for the district’s image.

The complaints were part of the reason why the city denied Latham’s request for a special-use permit for 218 Seventh St. in January. At the time, Latham said he’d cease operations at the building and use the program’s van for collection and distribution.

Latham’s clients use the needles for a variety of reasons from drug use to medication.

City officials say they acted Monday, when they executed a search warrant on 218 Seventh St., and Wednesday, when they did the same at 222 Seventh St., based on information that Latham was running the program out of the buildings.

Todd Cagnoni, the city’s deputy director of community and economic development, said the city obtained evidence in both locations that the buildings were being used to operate the program.

Latham denied the allegation. He said he was operating the needle exchange out of a mobile vehicle until Monday when city officials took all of his supplies. He said he hasn’t been operating at all since then.

Latham thinks the accusations are politically motivated. He ran for city alderman in 2009 and is the former president of the Midtown District business association.

He said he’s been running a mobile operation in Rockford for 17 years and had no idea that he needed a mobile permit.

Permit required
City officials and police condemned 218 Seventh St. on Monday and 222 Seventh St. on Wednesday. The buildings are ordered closed by the city of Rockford. One has been cited for numerous building code violations. The other is being remodeled, Cagnoni said, and needs permits pulled for the work being done.

Cagnoni said he’ll be contacting the owners of the two buildings and working with them to get their buildings up to code. Until then, they will remain condemned, he said.

City Attorney Kerry Partridge said the city wants to work with Latham to identify a location where he can operate legally.

“We do think that it’s a valuable service,” Partridge said. “ There is a suitable location for the operation. We just need to sit down with Mr. Latham and figure out where that is.”

Reach staff writer Corina Curry at [email protected] or 815-987-1371.
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http://www.rrstar.com/news/x816848872/Rockford-police-raid-needle-exchange-operation-for-second-time
 
The government wants to these people to die...That is what they are showing by doing such stupid things as shutting down harm reduction places such as needle exchanges.... The city should be thanking people for setting up these places, instead they are busting balls
 
Well, I'm not surprised to see my hometown in this forum, particularly because of the overly aggressive police force that exists here. SLANT (State Line Area Narcotics Team) is very active, but is a miserable failure, because heroin and cocaine are as easy to find as doughnuts. I avoid it, because the legal repercussions are simply not worth it.

It is hard to enjoy living in this city, because of the extremely conservative voting base, which generally is pro-police, and anti-public works. But, with a city-wide unemployment rate above 15%, and peaking at 20%, it is quite evident that the local government is failing miserably, and hopefully that should wake the voting population up to the reality that Rockford is becoming the next Flint, MI/Detroit, MI. Now, they wish to assault the dregs of society, as if it is the solution. It is disgusting that they would approve of fighting against harm reduction... what's next? Are they going to go bust the local methadone clinic on Charles Street? Probably... especially if local residents (with money) think it's bad for their neighborhood's "image."
 
what a shame..... The reason those places are in business is to keep the streets cleaner than they would be without steril supplies. Rules are rules tho I'm sure once he obtains the right permits things will go back to normal.
 
bad for the district’s image
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That's a laugh. Anybody who's been there knows a needle exchange program is the least of that area's blights. The "spa" full of geriatric hookers is much worse.

I do wonder why Latham doesn't just get the permits though. I mean, if that's what's required to keep operating, why not comply?
 
|>R()|)!G/-\|_ said:
That's a laugh. Anybody who's been there knows a needle exchange program is the least of that area's blights. The "spa" full of geriatric hookers is much worse.
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Haha, yeah, or the 2-3 abandoned homes per city block feng shui the city has going for itself.

I do wonder why Latham doesn't just get the permits though. I mean, if that's what's required to keep operating, why not comply?
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Unfortunately because:

The complaints were part of the reason why the city denied Latham’s request for a special-use permit for 218 Seventh St. in January. At the time, Latham said he’d cease operations at the building and use the program’s van for collection and distribution.
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:|
 
What the fuck man, why not just sell the clean needles at pharmacys like every other state. Taking away clean needles for junkies is the same as taking away lighters because crackheads use them to smoke. Plain stupid.
 
sadly this shit happens all the time. if the guy is taking in 500k used needles a year and giving out only 100K in new ones, he is effectively taking 4x the amount of dirty needles off the street and from whatit sounds like, properly disposing of them. that is in valuable, all the plice and gov see is needles for drugs and people who use illegal drugs, IE law breakers. what they seem to miss is that its harm reduction and disease prevention. who's going to share a needle when they have a clean one right there?

i know everyone hates junkie scumbag needle using addicts, but they have rights too, and the right to having clean needles, sterile water and cookers is no different than a homeless person having access to something like psych meds.

i am a member of the needle exchange here, and even though needles are kinda easy to get (just have to convince a pharmacist) being able to get everything else is great too, they give out everything plus have access to treatment programs. they do an invaluable service that many people dont like to have in their city or town, but is necessary.

i thought this was maybe going to be a story about a needle exchange operator that was running a dope ring too or something....one stop shopping lol
 
This is not the first time Rockford has been in this forum.

The thing is, Rockford has an old head 30 to 40 year old herion using population. They were the largest group at the exchange. However, following closely behind that group was 18-25 year olds from the affluent areas of Rockford.

This needle exchange was far more effective in getting others towards recovery than law enforcement.


But yes, the reason it was shutdown was pressure due to those Condos that are not fucking selling and the older geriatiric population in the area.

While some great community leaders do exist in Rockford, La La Larry Morrisey seems to just want to pretend that Rockford does not have major problems. 1 in 3 children live below the poverty line in Rockford! 1 in 3!!!!
 
^ I won't list prices, but in this state you can get 100 needles for what you would pay for 1/2 a bag of heroin. If you can afford to have a heroin habit you can afford to buy needles once every few weeks.
 
It still amazes me that you can't buy syringes OTC in some US states i mean that's just fucked. Whats the point of having them script only except for the old junkies should die motto that the truly ignorant cunts have. In Canada the average cost of a pack of 10 syringes at the pharmacy is between $3-4 (only a few overpriced chains charge close to $4) so that's not bad and i have yet to be denied syringes at any pharmacy. There is still a need for needle exchanges though because it gives incentives to people to dispose of needles in a way that won't harm anyone else plus they give out items that pharmacies don't carry such as micron filters and packets of sterile water which also aid in harm reduction.

I remember there was a very similar debate going on in my area except it was over detox centers which is just plain retarded! It was a case of "their just junkies i don't want my tax dollars going towards them" or "let the AIDS infested fuckers fend for themselves" or simply "not in my back yard". This seems to be what is going on here as well and the way society looks down upon people who use drugs especially those who shoot their gear never fails to sicken me.

I bet the cops got good and drunk at the local pig factory after their victorious day 8) . Hopefully if any of them end up with alcohol or tobacco related diseases they will be denied treatment for being drunken pigs who reek of shitty beer and cigarette smoke and thus did it to themselves. Karma can be a bitch :\
 
One of the few good things Blago did was pass a law that required pharm techs to sell needles to everyone who asks. I personally never iv'd anything, however have always been a strong supporter of Harm Reduction.

I know they can be purchased cheaply, but a portion of this exchanges clients are literally complete broke. The city of Rockford has a major prostitution problem and a large majority of them are active addicts literally working from hit to hit. This exchange has been nationally recognized and has been in operation for decades. Knowing the dedication of the people who work there, they are still getting the needles out some how.
 
anyone know if you can legally buy needles in wisconsin? Never bought any and never tried to. Would feel strange, but if it were legal I'd probably go out of town across a region and see what percentage deny me.
 
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