Tapestry Health has run a needle exchange program at 15-A Main St. since August 2012.
HOLYOKE -- Tapestry Health has established a phone number people can call if they find discarded syringes to ensure safe disposal of the needles.
"We'll send somebody to pick it up the next day, or even the same day, depending on what time someone called," Timothy W. Purington, Tapestry director of prevention services, said Friday.
Tapestry has operated a needle exchange program at 15-A Main St. since August 2012.
The phone number is (413) 650-2679.
The call goes directly to voicemail and the caller will be asked to provide details about the found syringe. The call is then distributed to needle exchange program staff and volunteers, a Tapestry Health press release said.
The hotline is available 24 hours a day, the press release said.
The presence of used needles on the streets and in parks has been a complaint, though Tapestry officials and needle exchange program supporters say Holyoke had a drug problem and discarded needles before the program began.
In a needle exchange program, people submit needles that have been used for intravenous drugs and get a clean, uninfected needle in return.
Health specialists say needle exchange helps by reducing the sharing of infected needles and cutting the spread of diseases such as HIV-AIDS and hepatitis C for which there are no cures. Such specialists include the Mayo Clinic and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Other benefits, supporters say, are that Tapestry can give referrals for substance
abuse treatment and for disease-testing to intravenous-drug users who come to the office and otherwise might never get such information.
Those who oppose having needle exchange here question studies' findings about the program's effectiveness. They also say it is unfair that diabetics must pay for needles but heroin users can get free needles to inject the illegal drug by exchanging a used needle.
Foes also lament that having a needle exchange program functions as a welcome mat for drug users in the region to come here, get a needle and inject.
The program has been controversial. The Board of Health voted 3-0 to permit operation of a needle exchange program and Mayor Alex B. Morse approved in August 2012.
Morse said such a decision is a public health issue best decided not by politics but by specialists like the three health board members, Katherine Liptak and Patricia Mertes, who are registered nurses, and physician Robert Mausel.
But City Council President Kevin A. Jourdain and six other councilors have a lawsuit pending in Hampden Superior Court that contends establishing such a program must be subject to a City Council vote.
Voters here have twice said no to needle exchange in nonbinding ballot questions, including on Nov. 5.