Lawmakers in Denver, Colorado, are considering improving sryinge access, by allowing more syringe service programs (SSP) to open and removing restrictions on where they can operate. The city of over 700,000 people currently has just three providers: Harm Reduction Action Center, Colorado Health Network and Lifepoint by Vivent Health (a mobile program).
Denver City Council discussed the rules governing SSP at a meeting on October 28, Denverite reported. At issue is a 1997 city ordinance which caps the number of SSP at three. The ordinance also prohibits SSP from being located within 1,000 feet of a school or daycare center—a unique restriction, although Denver’s three providers currently have special exemptions to operate at certain locations within those zones.
“The only time this comes into play is when we have to move,” Lisa Raville, executive director of Harm Reduction Action Center, told Filter. “We’re in our fourth location now; we tried to purchase it, but the building across the street sold for $12 million. We know we’ll have to move again.”
Councilmembers Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez and Sarah Parady reportedly advocated to change the 1997 law at the meeting. “We’re pretty out of step,” Parady said, when Denver has experienced major population growth. Neither councilmember responded to Filter‘s request for comment by publication time.
“We’re an excellent neighbor and there are no issues. Our folks are invested in the health and safety of the community we serve.”
The two face potential opposition, however, with other councilmembers raising concerns over the impact of SSP on low-income communities where they’re located, and the number of SSP that might open if the restrictions are removed.
Gonzales-Gutierrez reported to the council that no schools had made any complaints about SSP in their vicinity when asked by officials.
“Once we’re in [a location] we’re an excellent neighbor and there are no issues,” Raville said. “Our folks are invested in the health and safety of the community we serve.”
Harm Reduction Action Center (HRAC), the city’s longest-running SSP, serves 4,000 people annually. But it could be under threat if the ordinance isn’t revised. The program is at risk of losing its current facility due to rent increases, and the owner wants $10 million to buy the property. HRAC did receive a grant from the Denver Opioid Abatement Council to buy a new site, but so far the 1,000-foot rule has proved an obstacle to any deal. HRAC must spend the grant and find a new home by the end of 2025 or risk closure—stripping participants of access to critical and potentially lifesaving health resources.
“We deserve a safe place to call home,” Raville said. Owning its own property would represent “safety” for HRAC, and “knowing we’re not at the will of a landlord or gentrification.”
“We are heavily regulated by the Denver public health [and environmental] departments,” she continued. “They are incredibly engaged, and we go out of our way to be good neighbors because we don’t want neighbor drama. We know if we have that, we have nowhere to go. I have testimonials from neighbors around us, businesses and residents, that say we’re glad you’re in our neighborhood. We’re more of a wellness center for the larger community.”
Representatives of Colorado Health Network and Lifepoint did not provide comment by publication time.
“Three might have made sense in 1997, but it certainly doesn’t make sense in 2024.”
According to Denverite, Gonzales-Gutierrez and Parady now intend to hold individual meetings with other councilmembers to discuss their concerns, before putting their proposal to a vote in the weeks ahead.
Raville sees it as crucial that they succeed, both for the survival of current SSP and because the city needs more of them. “Three might have made sense in 1997,” she said of the cap, “but it certainly doesn’t make sense in 2024.”
Decades of evidence support SSP as safe and effective public health interventions. Sterile syringes reduce transmissions of blood-borne diseases like HIV and hepatitis C, as well as other injection-related harms, in communities where they operate. SSP additionally provide other vital resources, including naloxone to prevent overdose deaths, and help connect people with primary health care, substance use disorder treatment and other social services. They facilitate proper disposal of syringes. And as the CDC states, these programs are not linked to increases in drug use or crime in their neighborhoods.
Yet other Colorado cities have taken an aggressive stance against SSP. Earlier in 2024, Pueblo City Council voted to ban them, prompting a legal challenge from the ACLU. The lawsuit resulted in a judge temporarily blocking the new law; and in August, the judge struck down the ban, finding that state law on syringe distribution did not allow it.
Just up Interstate 25 in Colorado Springs, local officials have also raised concerns about an SSP operated by Colorado Health Network. In May, El Paso County Commissoner Longinos Gonzalez Jr. suggested that the program, in operation for three years, was approved illegally.
In 2020, Colorado state law gave state health officials the authority to approve SSP in cities and towns; Gonzalez Jr. said the state deliberately undermined Colorado Springs, which in 2017 and 2019 declined to allow SSP. Gonzalez Jr. alleged that Colorado Health Network failed to follow a statute requiring it to consult with local stakeholders before opening; the group has maintained that it did follow the law.
It’s all part of a challenging, often hostile national landscape for syringe service programs. According to a 2023 analysis by the Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association, Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota, Wyoming and Mississippi were the only states not to have at least one operational SSP. But access is often extremely limited even in the other 45 states, particularly in rural areas. Eleven states have a requirement that any SSP first be approved by a local jurisdiction, and three states allow a city or town to shut down a program.
Photograph by Joe Mabel via Wikimedia Commons/Creative Commons 3.0
