The director of the Cincinnati Exchange Project was arrested with
needles and supplies on Friday in Norwood, and was jailed overnight.
Elizabeth "Libby" Harrison was released at about 6am on Saturday and
appeared in Hamilton County Justice Center for an initial hearing before
Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Joshua Berkowitz. She pleaded not
guilty to drug paraphernalia charges.
Overnight on Friday, Norwood Police officers found Harrison’s car pulled
off to the side of a local road.
Harrison said she was tired and fatigued. Norwood police Chief William
Kramer said officers found Harrison "passed out in the driver's seat
with her car still in drive."
According to the Norwood police report, officers observed a syringe cap
in Harrison's lap and a bag in her pocket eventually found to contain
white powder residue.
A search of Harrison's vehicle also revealed a bottle cap and a piece of
burnt cotton, and both a capped and an uncapped syringe, police stated
in their report.
The white powder residue, which Harrison dropped to the ground after
emerging from her vehicle, will be tested, Kramer said. Drug possession
charges are possible pending the outcome of those tests, Kramer said.
"There was no bag with white powder in it," Harrison said. "If they
tested anything in the car, it’s going to have heroin in it because of
(my) work."
Harrison's car was filled with thousands of syringes in plastic
bio-hazard bins, but no actual drugs, she said. Harrison also said she
conversed politely with police, offered to show them her official
identification cards, but ultimately was arrested and jailed.
"I have hypoglycemia so I get lightheaded. I pulled over to the side of
the road, ate a peanut butter-honey bar and waited for it to take
effect," Harrison said after her hearing. "The next thing I know there's
cops everywhere."
CEP, as it's called, is a mobile exchange site that generally operates
from a van that clearly identifies its purpose. But the van occasionally
has mechanical problems, so staff work from their own vehicles so as
not to interrupt services.
That's why, according to Harrison, there were needles and other
supplies in her vehicle.
"If I'm carrying 1,500 needles and giant sharp (needle) containers, I'm
obviously running a program," Harrison said. "There was no reason for
them to take me to jail. For them, maybe it was a better-safe-than-sorry
situation,
but I think they should have thought about it a little longer."
Kramer noted needle exchange programs are typically very organized
and Harrison's involvement in a such a program doesn't exempt her
from proper handling of the instruments she deals with.
“If she simply had capped needles she was transporting… that didn’t
appear to be the case,” Kramer said. “I don’t know that anybody in a
needle exchange program would have an uncapped needle.”
Harrison said that her car was untidy at the time of her arrest.
At least one expert, who spoke without knowledge of the Norwood Police
Department's reports, said Harrison shouldn't have been arrested or
jailed.
"This is really outrageous," said Dr. Judith Feinberg founder and
medical director for the needle exchange program.
"She should not have been arrested," said Feinberg, who is now a West
Virginia University professor. "The syringe exchange is legal."
Feinberg said the exchange program has "gone through all the
appropriate approval processes" to operate.
Feinberg said the staff generally have phone numbers with them to call
police if any incidents arise during the exchange. Even so, she said,
"In the two years we have operated, there has never been a problem,
never a need to call police."
The project has been operating since 2014, offering to its clients an
exchange for clean needles, infectious disease testing, resources for
addiction treatment and, when available, naloxone, the life-saving
opioid and heroin overdose antidote.
