On Monday, the needle exchange bill won the unanimous support of a second Senate committee. It is scheduled to have its first hearing before a House panel on Tuesday.
“We’re more prepared than we were last year,” said Hansel Tookes, a University of Miami medical student who helped craft the proposal. “All of the evidence is in our favor. These programs have been shown to decrease instances of HIV and hepatitis.”
Needle exchange programs are illegal in Florida. But studies have shown success in other states.
In 2009, Tookes found that drug users in Miami were 34 times more likely to dispose of their needles publicly than drug users in San Francisco, which has a needle exchange program. His research was published in 2011 in the Drug and Alcohol Dependence medical journal, and was the inspiration for the proposed legislation.
Senate Bill 408 and House Bill 491 are almost identical to the needle exchange bills presented last year.
They call for the state Department of Health to create a pilot program enabling intravenous drug users in Miami-Dade County to swap used needles for clean ones.
The health department would also provide educational materials about drug addiction and blood-borne diseases, as well as drug treatment referrals and HIV testing and counseling.
After five years, state lawmakers would have the option to suspend or continue the effort.