Lawmakers will require people to show IDs to use Indiana’s needle exchange programs under legislation heading to Gov. Mike Braun’s desk.
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Senate Bill 91 also extends the program for another five years.
Previously, a person could anonymously swap used needles for clean ones at approved sites in six counties. The programs are credited with curbing bloodborne infections across the state, including HIV and hepatitis C cases.
Speaking against the bill in committee testimony, the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council claimed the exchanges were facilitating drug use and causing a “proliferation of needles” in communities.
Lawmakers responded with changes to the bill: requiring a 1 to 1 needle exchange rate; implementing regional restrictions on who can use the program; and barring the exchanges from operating near schools, day cares and churches.
The IDs, Rep. Brad Barrett said during the House Public Health Committee, would help prove a person lives in a region that the county needle exchange is permitted to serve.
“This is the first time we’ve actually put some guardrails and some accountability,” Barrett, R-Richmond, said later on the House floor.
Advocates, though, say the change will all but eliminate access for some participants.
“Addiction doesn’t care if you have an ID or not,” said Alan Witchey, the president of the Damien Center, which is Indiana’s oldest AIDS service organization.
The center hosts a weekly needle exchange. Many participants, Witchey said, do not have stable housing or income. That makes it harder to get an ID, which requires an address, documents and paying fees.
Carrie O’Brien, who runs the Damien Center’s exchange, said about a quarter of participants would be affected. She’s worried they will miss out on the exchange’s other resources, including hepatitis C testing, naloxone supplies and referrals to recovery services.
“We’d be serving a smaller number of folks,” O’Brien said.
Years ago, she was using opioids and meth. Showing identification to get resources would’ve been a barrier to her recovery, O’Brien said: “Spending money on an ID was not what I wanted to do back then.”
O’Brien and other staff at the Damien Center said they would help people get or update IDs to keep participation going.
‘Better than not having a program at all’
Sen. Michael Crider, a Republican from Greenfield, has worked to continue the state’s needle exchanges. The programs first started in 2015 during a major HIV outbreak in Scott County, spurred by the opioid crisis and injection drug use.
“It’s about keeping people as healthy as possible,” Crider said.
His bill faced an uphill battle in the Indiana House, where lawmakers added the restrictions. After a debate in his caucus, Crider ultimately accepted the changes.
“It’s better than not having a program at all,” he told Mirror Indy.
Braun’s stance on the bill is unclear
A spokesperson for Braun’s office did not respond to requests for comment. His office did not take a stance on the bill at Statehouse hearings.
Other top Republicans have publicly opposed the needle exchanges.
“This is an absolutely horrible bill,” Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith tweeted on Jan. 27. “The government should not be in the business of handing out needles to people.”
This stance is in line with the Trump administration, which has restricted federal funding for harm reduction programs such as needle exchanges.
“That definitely influenced the discussion and made things more difficult,” said Rep. Ed Clere, an independent from New Albany who authored the first bill legalizing Indiana’s syringe exchanges and voted for this bill. Clere left the Republican Party in January, criticizing its direction under Trump.
Harm reduction is a public health approach that treats addiction as a condition to be managed. In an executive order, the president said these tools are facilitating drug use.
DeOnyae-Dior Valentina, a local advocate who volunteers at the needle exchanges, disagreed.
“I’ve lost friends to substance abuse and have family members who are still using,” she told Mirror Indy. “Harm reduction is meeting people where they are.”
The public health consequences of restricting the exchanges, Valentina said, will also be felt.
“We know that folks from out of state are bringing drugs into Indiana and increasing HIV and hep C diagnoses,” she said. “In order for these programs to be successful, they have to be accessible to everyone.”
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Mirror Indy reporter Mary Claire Molloy covers health. Reach her at 317-721-7648 or email maryclaire.molloy@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @mcmolloy7.
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