Local needle exchange tries to defend contents of kit

Aids Resource Center of Wisconsin
gave out 4 million needles last year

There’s a reason needle-exchange programs are prevalent all over the world, including La Crosse. They help drug users from contracting diseases, like AIDS or Hepatitis from used needles.

But, when La Crosse assistant police chief Rob Abraham visited the WIZM studios Wednesday and opened up a kit from the needle exchange in downtown La Crosse , what was included was surprising.

Of course, there were needles. Three of them. But, also included was tin cap – called “the cooker” – cotton balls, alcohol wipes, matches, stuff to mix heroin, condoms and antibiotic cream, along with instructions on best practices for injecting and getting high and other pamphlets.

In charge of prevention at the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin, which runs the La Crosse needle exchange, is Scott Stokes, who said the organization handed out 4 million needles to users statewide last year – an increase of about 3 million from the year before.  

And, while the kit Abraham brought surprised those in the studio, even La Crosse police themselves were shocked that the exchange wasn’t just handing out needles locally.

“Really, it was everything except the drugs. … it’s a basically one-stop shop,” Abraham said. “If there’s a drug dealer standing outside the needle exchange, you had everything you needed to inject.”

Stokes, however, argues there’s a reason behind each of those items.

“If somebody takes a contaminated needle and touches the cotton ball or that little tin cap … then those items are contaminated, as well,” Stokes said. “And other people will put their needle into that tin cap and draw up their hit.

“It really is about safe-injection practices.”

He says the drug kit is meant to ensure the whole process of shooting up remains clean for drug users. The alcohol prep pads, for example: “The last thing you want is any kind of bacterial that’s on top of the skin to be pushed into the skin with a needle,” Stokes said.

The first goal of the kit is preventing disease, but after that, it’s about getting drug users help.

“We know that people’s treatment outcomes are a lot better if they can find their way into treatment and they don’t have HIV or Hepatitis C,” Stokes said.

La Crosse police have expressed frustration over the mini drug kits, especially now as La Crosse struggles to deal with what has been called a heroin epidemic. 

Here’s the unveiling in the WIZM studio during Wednesday’s show …