Nebraska lawmakers uphold veto of needle exchange bill

Nebraska seemed poised last month to become an unlikely counterbalance to the national trend of tightening drug laws. A coalition of liberal and conservative state lawmakers has passed a bill by a wide margin that would allow local governments to set up needle exchanges.

But Gov. Jim Pillen vetoed the bill, warning of “bringing here the failed policies of drug-ridden cities like San Francisco,” and on Tuesday, Nebraska lawmakers reversed course and narrowly upheld his veto.

The demise of the needle exchange law reflected growing skepticism among Republicans and some Democrats about its harm-reduction approach to illegal drug use. Oregon has taken steps toward recriminalizing hard drugs this year, lawmakers in Idaho introduced a bill that would ban needle exchanges and voters in San Francisco approved a ballot measure that would require drug screening for many welfare recipients.

The debate in Nebraska, a reliably conservative state, reflected the national conversation about tackling drug use. Proponents of the bill spoke about the bill’s opportunity to limit disease transmission and help drug users secure treatment, while Mr. Pillen, a Republican, asked lawmakers to “maintain my veto to prevent our government’s use of dangerous, illegal and dehumanizing drugs.”

The governor’s argument convinced enough lawmakers to change their minds. Twenty-seven of Nebraska’s 49 lawmakers voted Tuesday to override the veto, three short of the required thirty votes needed to pass a bill over Mr. Approve pills. When the Legislature sent the bill to the governor last month, 30 senators voted in favor.

“For people who are still using, who are still struggling with addiction, for whatever reason, this is a door,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Megan Hunt, a political independent who used to be a Democrat. “This is an opportunity for them to get treatment for the first time.”

The bill would have allowed cities and counties in Nebraska to set up programs in which drug users could throw away old needles and pick up clean needles, which supporters say would reduce the risk of spreading HIV or other diseases through needle sharing. Local governments would have been allowed, but not required, to set up the needle exchanges, known as syringe service programs. The exchange sites also would have provided access to substance abuse treatment.

“I can only imagine what it’s like to be addicted, but I can tell you, if no one reaches out, they’ll never get better,” said Sen. Mike Jacobson, a Republican who supported overriding the veto .

Sheriff Aaron Hanson of Douglas County, which includes Omaha, said in an interview before the override vote that he was initially skeptical of the bill, but came around to support it, with some reservations. Sheriff Hanson, a Republican, said he wanted lawmakers to also pass another bill — one that would increase criminal penalties for people who supply drugs that cause serious injury or death.

“I think we spend too much time debating between the pendulum swings of harm reduction and getting tough on crime when we should be implementing what works from both angles,” Sheriff Hanson said.

While drugs — particularly fentanyl, which is not usually injected, and methamphetamine, which often is — are an ongoing problem in Nebraska, the state’s situation compares favorably with other states. In 2021, Nebraska had the lowest rate of fatal drug overdoses in the country, according to federal data. But the number of new diagnoses of HIV, which can be transmitted through shared needles, has increased in Nebraska in recent years.

Opponents of Ms Hunt’s bill questioned the message needle sharing would send. In a column written before the override vote, Mr. Pillen said: “The bill would enable drug use by equipping addicts with free needles. If that sounds crazy to you, let me assure you, you’re not alone.”

Senator Kathleen Kauth, a Republican, said: “I think enabling addiction in any way is really dangerous.”

Nebraska, whose unicameral legislature is officially nonpartisan, would have been far from the only Republican-led state to allow needle exchanges. studies have shown that they can reduce disease transmission without increasing crime. According to KFFa nonprofit organization that tracks health data, more than 40 states had some form of needle or syringe exchange in 2022. When Mike Pence, a Republican, was governor of Indiana, he authorized a needle exchange in 2015 amid an HIV outbreak among drug users. users in a rural area of ​​the state, an example that came up in Lincoln on Tuesday.

But in recent years, as fentanyl has proliferated and concerns about crime and homelessness have emerged as potential political risks for Democrats, some coastal areas that had taken a permissive approach to drug use have retraced their steps.

In San Francisco, where overdose deaths have soared, voters and politicians have called for a tougher stance. City leaders in Portland and their counterparts in Oregon, who not long ago were at the forefront of decriminalization, have taken action to tackle drug use again.

Harm reduction advocates see criticism of such programs as a misguided response to the social problems exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I think a lot of people just come back and see all the public suffering around them,” said Kellen Russoniello, senior policy adviser at the Drug Policy Alliance, which supports decriminalizing drug use. “And all of that played into, ‘Well, it doesn’t look like what we have right now is working.’ And unfortunately, that energy is channeled toward harm reduction, and that’s one of the things that we know works.”