TAMPA, Fla. — A Tampa resource to help keep people who are suffering from addiction alive has disappeared.
The general manager of University Mall confirmed to 10 Investigates that management asked IDEA Exchange’s mobile syringe exchange to stop setting up in its parking garage.
It was a place where people could turn in used syringes and get fresh ones, plus access to other resources.
When 10 Investigates talked to leaders at the mobile syringe exchange last year, they told us they were helping about 75 people every time they set up there. At the time, that was twice a week.
“We have cotton, hepatitis C information. We have the syringes in multiple sizes. We have sharps containers, which are really important. We give each participant a sharps container to safely dispose of their used syringes… We do HIV and Hepatitis C testing,” Director of Social Medicine at Tampa General Hospital’s Division of Emergency Medicine Heather Henderson, PhD, previously said in 2022.
“And, of course, we also distribute quite a bit of Narcan, which is what prevents overdoses and reverses overdoses when they happen,” Dr. Jason Wilson, associate medical director of Tampa General Hospital’s Emergency Department, also said in 2022.
But now that resource is gone in that community.
University Mall’s General Manager Pat Murphy told us mall staff used to find syringes, drug paraphernalia and intoxicated people around the property. He said that the problem has mostly gone away since the mall asked the syringe exchange to stop setting up in the parking garage.
“Security guards were finding people on drugs and causing trouble on the property,” Murphy said. “It just wasn’t something that we wanted at the mall.”
Hillsborough County data shows the area has a major need for addiction services. The zip code where the mall is located, 33612, had the second-highest number of fentanyl overdose deaths in the county last year.
And research shows syringe exchanges work. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they’re “effective, and cost-saving, do not increase illegal drug use or crime, and play an important role in reducing the transmission of viral hepatitis, HIV and other infections.”
It’s part of a strategy called harm reduction, meant to reduce the negative consequences of drug use. Harm reduction is based on accepting the reality that people use drugs, and those people can’t make it to recovery if they die from an overdose first.
“You’ve got to be alive to be able to get care. And we’ve got to keep you alive and keep you medically safe to be able to help you make it through this phase of the addiction,” Wilson previously said.
Henderson told 10 Investigates that IDEA Exchange has not yet been able to find another location in the university area to set up, but there are still two syringe exchanges in Tampa and one in St. Petersburg:
TGH Healthpark, 5902 N 30th St, Tampa (Mondays and Fridays, Noon – 4 p.m.)
Metro Inclusive Health parking lot, 2105 N Nebraska Ave, Tampa (Tuesdays, 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.)
1525 16th St. S., Suite 3, St. Petersburg
Here’s a list of syringe exchanges in Florida. If you or a loved one is struggling with addiction, you can find more resources here.