I oppose this bill, which would repeal West Virginia’s syringe services framework and declare syringe services programs unlawful.
This legislation would cause real and foreseeable harm to public health. Syringe services programs are one of the most extensively studied and effective tools we have to prevent the spread of HIV and hepatitis, reduce overdose deaths, and connect people to treatment. Eliminating them does not stop drug use—it increases disease, medical costs, and death.
West Virginia has already experienced outbreaks of HIV and hepatitis C tied directly to injection drug use. Syringe services programs exist precisely to prevent those outcomes. Treating HIV or hepatitis C costs hundreds of thousands of dollars per person over a lifetime. Prevention costs far less. This bill shifts the burden from prevention to emergency rooms, hospitals, and taxpayers.
While the bill claims to preserve “harm reduction services,” it removes the very service that makes harm reduction effective for people who inject drugs: access to sterile syringes. Without that access, many people will not engage at all. Education, referrals, and screenings do not work if the door is closed to the people most at risk.
Syringe services programs are also a critical pathway to overdose prevention. They are a primary source of naloxone distribution, overdose education, and early engagement with treatment. When these programs are shut down, overdose deaths increase—not because drug use increases, but because people are pushed into more dangerous and isolated conditions.
This bill replaces regulation with prohibition and punishment. That approach will not eliminate syringe use. It will drive it underground, reduce safe disposal, increase needle litter, and remove state oversight entirely. Regulated programs allow accountability. Bans do not.
The so-called transition period offered in this bill is inadequate and contradictory. Providers are expected to help patients transition away from services while being prohibited from providing the very service that keeps those patients engaged. That is not continuity of care—it is abrupt disengagement.
Finally, this bill ignores overwhelming medical and public health consensus. Syringe services programs are supported because they work. Public policy should be guided by evidence and outcomes, not fear or ideology.
This legislation will increase disease transmission, increase overdose deaths, increase health care costs, and weaken public health oversight. West Virginia should strengthen and improve syringe services programs—not outlaw them.
For these reasons, I urge you to reject this bill.
Thank you for your time and consideration.