A bill to expand Delaware’s harm reduction initiatives in drug overdose prevention got Gov. Matt Meyer's signature.
He signed the bill on the last day he could, after not committing to do so earlier this summer.
With it, he also put out an executive order that adds monitoring of the policy’s rollout.
The law clarifies Delaware Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health oversight of overdose prevention partners. It also instructs state partners to provide people with clean supplies, including for substance use. It decriminalizes possession of paraphernalia for individuals who use drugs.
Meyer’s executive order adds caveats, which require a phased implementation that prioritizes existing programs, like syringe exchange. It says use of state funds for supplies with less evidentiary support need the Department of Health and Social Services Secretary’s approval.
Leslie Palladino, Director of Overdose Prevention & Outreach with Impact Life, says these sound like fair asks, and supports accountability provisions.
"So in the event that the data isn't provided, or it's skewed, there is corrective action that can be taken," she said. "So it's putting an emphasis on holding us as providers and the state as kind of the overseeing body accountable to make sure that we're doing things ethically."
Meyer’s executive order also says the Department of Health and Social Services must work with law enforcement agencies and get input on decriminalizing personal-use paraphernalia.
Palladino said she supports this requirement too.
The measure faced pushback from House and Senate Republicans, who focused on language decriminalizing paraphernalia and instruction that state partners to provide clean supplies to people.
Palladino said the measures in the bill that ask harm reduction agencies to provide clean supplies for drug ingestion beyond syringe exchange are a response to an increasingly unpredictable drug market, where needle use is not always the most prevalent form of consumption.
The new law puts Delaware’s Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health at the helm of a framework to license and regulate harm reduction programs that partner with the state.
Palladino added her organization already contracts with the state on harm reduction and overdose prevention and the new law doesn’t substantially change that work.
"But probably the people that we're serving on the street and the people that are enrolled in syringe service programs will be the first touchpoint for for some of those services and the expansion," she said.
The executive order directs DHSS to set, "clear and measurable outcome metrics and baseline measurements against which both the program and the statutory changes made by Senate Bill 249 can later be assessed."
