Dori: King Country offering too much money to hand out clean needles

Some people are still finding this to be a challenging job market even though economy is doing better.

“Well do I have a job option for you,” says KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson .

King County’s Needle Exchange Program is looking for an Education Specialist with duties that include daily operation of needle exchange services at two storefront sites, as well as van-based delivery services. The position calls for providing HIV, hepatitis, STD, and other health education and prevention information to individuals who use injection drugs. The person would cover between one and four shifts per month, for up to two years.

Related: Don’t touch: What to do when finding needles in Seattle

The salary for the position ranges from $23.56 to $29.86 per hour. Not only does Dori think the wage too high, he also isn’t convinced about the program itself.

“I don’t know that handing out needles requires that much more specialization, no offense to the current needle-exchange people, than handing a hamburger across the counter,” Dori said. “I don’t think that there is a whole lot more specialization required.

“Look, I think that we need to get people who are addicted to drugs off the drugs,” he added. “I think we need to provide help, the counseling to get them clean. I’m not sure still that we as a society, as a government, as a taxpayers need to provide clean needles.”

The program provides sterile syringes and clean injection equipment to “high-risk, marginalized people who use drugs by injection.”

King County argues that the exchange is successful, saying HIV infection among people who use drugs by injection has been shown to increase an average of 6 percent per year in cities that do not have needle exchange and that the county’s rate of infection has remained low and stable for the past 16 years. The idea is that the $1.2 million spent on the program pays for itself when compared to medical cost to treating these injection-related diseases.

Dori isn’t convinced.

“We never see those savings,” he said. “They always tell us about those savings. We just have our taxes go up and up and up. We never actually have them say, ‘OK, look we’ll pay this person $30 an hour, but we’ll reduce taxes by $100,000 or $500,000, whatever the health savings are a year, to balance it out, to make this job pay for itself.”

Dori believes the money would be better used going toward drug counselors and treatment programs, rather than, in the minds of the government, getting individuals to safely use drugs.

“Because, honestly, there is no safe way to use heroin. There really isn’t,” he said. “And the money would be much better spent to help these people get clean, get counseling, get treatment, get in a program. That’s what I would like.

“I know people who have a tough time getting their loved ones into treatment because it’s too expensive,” he added. “Because we spend money on stuff like that. Anyway, $30 an hour. Really? That’s what we’ve got to spend here?”

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