La Crosse police capt. discusses 300,000 needles handed out downtown

AIDS Resource Center gave out 11,000 needles in 2008

La Crosse police are among those not all that pleased with the number of hypodermic needles getting handed out through the needle exchange at the AIDS Resource Center in downtown La Crosse.

The number of needles handed out this year has grown to 300,000.

It’s a scary number, says police captain Jason Melby, and probably not a coincidence that more and more people are coming across needles discarded throughout the city.

“I think everybody would openly acknowledge the idea of the needle exchange producing, somewhere in the area of excess of 300,000 needles to area drug users is contributing to the number of disposed needles in the community,” Melby said. “The numbers are alarming to the police dept.

“We see it on a daily basis in the street, coming across randomly discarded needles in places they where they shouldn’t be. Executing search warrants on houses and finding hundreds of needles laying throughout house.”

The number of needles given out at the exchange has increased exponentially. In 2008, that number was 11,000.

“One of the first things it indicates is that there’s been a rather expansive growth of intravenous drug use,” Melby said, “which is obviously alarming from the fact of, not just law enforcement,a public health issue, as well.”

Back in March, assistant police chief Rob Abraham with the La Crosse Police Dept. came to the WIZM studio to show us exactly what someone would get with a needle exchange kit.