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The Board of Health (BOH) in Holyoke
voted 3-0 Tuesday to permit the operation of a needle-exchange program.
Tapestry Health planned to resume its NEP work the next day, said Timothy W.
Purington, its director of prevention services.
At the meeting, supporters of the
NEP included some city councilors; Mayor Alex B. Morse; Police Chief James M.
Neiswanger; the state Department of Public Health’s director of infectious
disease, Kevin Cranston; and retired CDC HIV/AIDS researcher T. Stephen Jones.
However, some residents and city
councilors opposed the BOH vote during its meeting at City Hall, including
Council President Kevin A. Jourdain, who vowed he would seek an injunction to
stop the NEP.
“Let me first say you have no
authority to adopt a needle exchange,” said Jourdain, who cited a former city
solicitor’s 1996 ruling that an NEP approval would require authorization by the
mayor and City Council. “It can’t be any more clear than that.” Voters rejected
the NEP in a 2001 non-binding referendum, opponents noted. They also cited
concerns about the NEP’s cost, whether it would facilitate drug use, and a
possible increase in discarded needles.
Elizabeth Rodriguez-Ross, the
current city solicitor, said that under state law, local approval means the
consent of the mayor and the BOH. On Aug. 3, she had ordered the BOH to meet
again on the issue, saying its July 9 meeting had violated the open-meetings
law by not noting that the NEP would be voted on.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
