City Council to vote on needle exchange program

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published July 9, 2006 at 9:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

The San Diego city council votes tomorrow on whether to resume the city's clean needle exchange program. The vote forces city council members to take a stand on the controversial issue. KPBS reporter

The San Diego city council votes tomorrow on whether to resume the city's clean needle exchange program. The vote forces city council members to take a stand on the controversial issue. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Critics of the needle exchange program fear it promotes drug use. But scientific studies consistently prove clean needle exchange programs cut down the spread of Hepetitis C and HIV, and don't increase drug use. But San Diego County's Board of Supervisors don't support the program. But in the city, mayor Jerry Sanders wants it reinstated and councilwoman Toni Atkins agrees.

Atkins: "We have a regional health crisis and we could certainly leave this to other entities to do we could leave this to the County. Obviously that hasn't worked, so we're going to step forward and do what's right I hope that my colleagues will support us on Tuesday so that we can continue this program.

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The San Diego city council likely has the five votes needed to endorse the program, which is funded by a non-profit agency. Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.