San Antonio Needle-Swap Activists Facing Charges

SAN ANTONIO (AP) – Police said they will seek drug paraphernalia charges punishable by up to a year in jail for three activists who were caught handing out clean syringes in exchange for dirty ones.

The members of the nonprofit group Bexar Area Harm Reduction Coalition were cited Jan. 5 when a police officer saw them parked at a corner “with several known prostitutes and drug addicts next to the vehicle.”

The police confiscated containers of clean syringe kits, while leaving them with the used syringes they’d collected. An officer cited the three with possession of drug paraphernalia, a Class C misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500.

But police now say they will refile the case this week with District Attorney Susan Reed as a Class A misdemeanor, distribution of paraphernalia, which carries a punishment of up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.

The defendants are Bill Day, 73, a co-founder of the nonprofit group, and two board members, Mary Casey, 67, and Melissa Lujan, 39.

“These are enormously decent, charitable people, and what’s happening with them smacks of persecution,” said Neel Lane, an attorney with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, which is representing the coalition at no cost.

The citations come as Bexar County health officials wait for a state attorney general’s opinion on legislation passed last year authorizing the county to pilot a syringe exchange program.

Reed has warned local officials that the legislation doesn’t shield participants from drug paraphernalia laws.

Texas is the only state that doesn’t allow syringe exchange programs, which are meant to curb the spread of diseases like hepatitis and HIV among intravenous drug users.

Assistant Police Chief David Head said if the pilot program moves forward, the law would allow only Bexar County’s health authority to run a syringe exchange program, and not a private group such as Bexar Area Harm Reduction Coalition.

Head denied Day’s claim that he had been given permission by police to exchange syringes. Day has been open about his group’s work. He said the dirty needles are disposed of with the Metropolitan Health District.

The volunteers who work with the needle exchange program see it as a Christian ministry, intended to “improve the lives of the least among us,” Day said.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)