TimesOC: Clean needle program gone, O.C. addicts use ‘whatever they can’
Good morning. It’s Wednesday, March 16. I’m Carol Cormaci, bringing you today’s TimesOC newsletter with the latest roundup of news and events.
Orange County has the distinction of being the largest county in the U.S. that does not have a program in place to provide access to syringes to drug access, according to the California Department of Public Health. My colleagues Emily Alpert Reyes and Ben Brazil teamed up to collaborate on a news feature that looks at the problems encountered by users, many of them homeless, since the Harm Reduction Institute, then part of the American Addiction Institute of Mind and Medicine, halted operations at its Santa Ana offices earlier this year.
The story explains that after the Institute lost its home, workers and volunteers, including 51-year-old Steven Woodson, fanned out on the streets to provide naloxone, a lifesaving opioid reversal drug, and other supplies to users, but they could not distribute packs of clean syringes.
The state has made efforts over the years to encourage programs that will give clean needles to users, as it’s one way to reduce the number of HIV and hepatitis infections. But it’s a difficult enterprise, as many people oppose the idea. Santa Ana was the lone city in O.C. that allowed needle exchanges until the fall of 2020 when the City Council voted to ban them.
“With the needle program closed,” Alpert Reyes and Brazil report, “people are ‘using whatever they can. Whatever they have,’ said Woodson, 51, who said he takes methadone to keep away from heroin. ‘They’re going to do whatever they’ve got to do. That’s the horrible part.’”
There is some light, according to the news story. The state recently dropped a requirement that syringe exchanges it authorizes must operate in line with municipal ordinances. This change in policy opens the door for the Harm Reduction Institute to seek state approval to operate a syringe program.
MORE NEWS
— The conflict half a world away has changed the lives of the roughly 112,000 people of Ukrainian descent in California. Like Huntington Beach resident and Ukrainian transplant Ganna Hovey, many feel an overwhelming sense of despair and powerlessness, writes my colleague Ruben Vives, who interviewed Hovey as she has anxiously kept an eye on her parents in her hometown of Kharkiv, getting alerts on an app every time a bomb was dropped by Russian forces.
— Laguna Hills City Council on a split vote approved a development agreement for the Village at Laguna Hills, a project aiming to transform the 68-acre site formerly occupied by the Laguna Hills Mall into a mixed-use development featuring 1,500 apartment units, retail outlets, professional office space, a community park and a hotel. My colleague Gabriel San Román has the full story here.
— At the suggestion of a teacher, Fountain Valley High School showed solidarity with rival Edison High last Friday, when students, faculty and staff were invited to wear their friendly foe’s colors, green and gold, after two Edison students, Josh and Jeremy Page, died in the aftermath of a traffic collision a week ago Monday. Schools throughout Huntington Beach Unified School District also followed suit, donning Edison’s colors for a day. Read my colleague Matt Szabo’s touching story of this tribute here.
— Classes were suspended Monday at Kraemer Middle School in Placentia after an assistant principal died by suicide in a private staff area on campus that morning. The Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District announced it would make mental health professionals available for students, staff and families.
— A well-known Orange County piano instructor, John Mordecai Scott, 65, faces up to 111 years in prison following his conviction for molesting eight girls, including a 5-year-old, over nearly two decades.
— Orange County attorneys Adrianne E. Marshack of Irvine, Yolanda V. Torres of Huntington Beach and Fernando Valle of Santa Ana were among those Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Monday to serve as judges, according to a report by City News Service.
— Joel Praneet Siam, 38, of San Diego, in jail on suspicion of stealing a yacht Thursday and crashing into several vessels in Newport Harbor, is facing multiple felony charges, including grand theft, vandalism and battery with serious bodily injury.
LIFE & LEISURE
— Longtime O.C. residents might remember AirCal, first known as Air California, which operated out of John Wayne Airport for several years before being sold to and absorbed by American Airlines. A free exhibit on display now at the Balboa Island Museum recalls AirCal’s storied history.
— The proprietor of Bay Auto Service in Costa Mesa, Joe Miracle, knows a thing or two about cars. He also has a fondness for vintage memorabilia, with his garage filled to the brim with enough collectibles to entertain even the most harried repair customer. Read my colleague Sara Cardine’s feature story on Miracle and what she calls his “menagerie” of treasured objects.
— A team of five Newport Harbor High students participating in a culinary arts program there, last week won first place among 16 competing teams in the 2022 CA ProStart Cup held at the Long Beach Convention Center. The Newport Harbor team’s menu that wowed the judges? Citrus and fennel salad with house-made ricotta cheese, a cherry pistachio pork roulade on brown butter cauliflower mash with green beans and string carrots and almond ginger churros.
SPORTS
— In a nail-biter of a game in Sacramento on Saturday, the Sage Hill girls’ basketball team rallied to come up with a big win, capturing the Division II championship. It was a thrilling outcome for the private Newport Beach school with strong ties to the late Kobe Bryant and his Mamba Sports Academy. My colleague Andrew Turner writes about the team’s resiliency over the past two years and its road to reaching the state competition.
— Chase Dodd, a Huntington Beach High graduate who now plays water polo for UCLA, on Sunday scored three goals in the championship match at the FINA Intercontinental Tournament as the U.S. men’s national team defeated Australia 7-6 in Lima, Peru to capture the gold. Another local on the U.S. team was Newport Harbor High junior Ben Liechty.
— L.A. Times sportswriter Eric Sondheimer puts Orange Lutheran still at No. 1 in this week’s Southland top 25 high school baseball rankings after taking two of three games from San Juan Capistrano JSerra in a series to open Trinity League play.
— The Anaheim Ducks confirmed Monday they have traded eight-year veteran defenseman Josh Manson to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for defense prospect Drew Helleson and a second-round pick in the National Hockey League’s 2023 draft.
— One day after Angels manager Joe Maddon floated the possibility of moving Mike Trout off center field to ease the stress on the three-time American League most valuable player’s body, the idea was scrapped during a meeting Monday between the 30-year-old Trout, Maddon and general manager Perry Minasian, writes The Times’ Mike DiGiovanna. “We’re gonna put him in center field,” Maddon said before the team’s first spring training workout.
STAY IN TOUCH
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