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Take Back Santa Cruz - Needles Solution Team
Take Back Santa Cruz has a long history of disdain for needles found in public and the people who use them. Dating back to 2013 Samantha Simon Olden and Lisa Sokolowski have been ardent critics of the former volunteer run Syringe exchange program, in particular mobile van services and today, will comment on and encourage conversations that call for shutting down the Syringe Program.
TBSC has a long angry history regarding syringes in public, syringe services and substance users. On the surface , one might think they truly are concerned with needles in public. In 2012 now convicted felon Dylan Griener filmed a drug den on West Cliff Drive . This video catapulted the community into the very real heroin use epidemic the nation and Santa Cruz is experiencing. In 2013 Santa Cruz County HSA took over the syringe program for the county and moved the program to the Emeline campus. In 2014 at a Board Of Supervisors meeting Analicia Cube spoke and said " Take Back Santa Cruz has never said to shut down the exchange." At the time, the group was pushing for marking of syringes so origin of syringes could be determined. ) by opening Sharps containers, manually counting. Critics found this variance from Best Practices expensive , impractical , and a dangerous witch hunt on the poor who use the program as opposed to those who can afford to buy 30 syringes at a time at one of the many local pharmacies. A county ordinance was put in place that required pharmacies that sell syringes be required to also accept syringes in Sharps containers, thereby participating in the disposal of syringes. With campaign season around the corner, TBSC appears to be ramping up the needles in public issue again with emphasis only on the County Program. The following screen captures illustrate the level of harassment TBSC will turn to in order to attain their goals which , at the time, was to close down the Beach Flats Volunteer run program. Samantha Olden has dressed up "like a junkie" to impersonate a client of the exchange back in 2013. Her good buddy Lisa Sokolowki Litten accompanies her.
Not much has changed in TBSC. Continued photographs of syringes show up on the closed Facebook page followed by a rather uninformed conversation with comments made by admin Kim Laney to "shut er down" Who agrees with her but fellow admin Samantha Simon Olden.
In 2014 Gabrielle Korte submitted a letter to the Board of Supervisors on October 2013 and she managed to hit all the TBSC high points. A trifecta !
" Shut down the day services at the Homeless Services Center, Shut down the Needles Exchange ( just another form of enabling ) End our "Catch and Release" form of justice ....if more jail space is needed , then find it.... " TBSC classist brilliance !
In 2016 , here are three of the admin, spokespeople , board members or whatever they call themselves advocating for shutting down a significant Public Health program ....because they think so. This illustrates their Republican Right wing leanings and despite the fact that they advocate for evidence and data in the new revised current mission statement , it appears that it must only be the evidences that they manufacture. At no point does TBSC identify who is on the Needles Solution Team.
With such an official title, one might think there was a physician or someone from the County Public Health Department involved but I would guess that it would be members such as Samantha, Gabrielle or Kim who detest syringes or more appropriately the people who use them.
Wouldn't the Facebook page of a community group be a great place to link readers to data front the CDC or the World Health Organization siting data that clearly states that needle litter greatly is reduced by the presence of a syringe program ?
Wouldn't the Facebook page of a community group be a great place to submit data from the above organizations that demonstrate that the presence of a Syringe Program has not been proven to elevate crime in the area where it operates?
Wouldn't the Facebook page of a community group be a great place to submit data regarding a tragic outbreak of HIV in Austin , Indiana in 2015 due to sharing of needles. There were 150 plus cases reported in a small community of under 5,000 as the Governor of Indiana quickly approved of a a syringe program.
It might be ...but then again, that would be evidence based best practices and clearly TBSC thrives using hyperbole, fear mongering and false facts to achieve their political goals " for the sake of safety" of course.
The real question is , how safe are we with Take Back Santa Cruz ?
Not much has changed in TBSC. Continued photographs of syringes show up on the closed Facebook page followed by a rather uninformed conversation with comments made by admin Kim Laney to "shut er down" Who agrees with her but fellow admin Samantha Simon Olden.
In 2014 Gabrielle Korte submitted a letter to the Board of Supervisors on October 2013 and she managed to hit all the TBSC high points. A trifecta !
" Shut down the day services at the Homeless Services Center, Shut down the Needles Exchange ( just another form of enabling ) End our "Catch and Release" form of justice ....if more jail space is needed , then find it.... " TBSC classist brilliance !
In 2016 , here are three of the admin, spokespeople , board members or whatever they call themselves advocating for shutting down a significant Public Health program ....because they think so. This illustrates their Republican Right wing leanings and despite the fact that they advocate for evidence and data in the new revised current mission statement , it appears that it must only be the evidences that they manufacture. At no point does TBSC identify who is on the Needles Solution Team.
With such an official title, one might think there was a physician or someone from the County Public Health Department involved but I would guess that it would be members such as Samantha, Gabrielle or Kim who detest syringes or more appropriately the people who use them.
Wouldn't the Facebook page of a community group be a great place to link readers to data front the CDC or the World Health Organization siting data that clearly states that needle litter greatly is reduced by the presence of a syringe program ?
Wouldn't the Facebook page of a community group be a great place to submit data from the above organizations that demonstrate that the presence of a Syringe Program has not been proven to elevate crime in the area where it operates?
Wouldn't the Facebook page of a community group be a great place to submit data regarding a tragic outbreak of HIV in Austin , Indiana in 2015 due to sharing of needles. There were 150 plus cases reported in a small community of under 5,000 as the Governor of Indiana quickly approved of a a syringe program.
It might be ...but then again, that would be evidence based best practices and clearly TBSC thrives using hyperbole, fear mongering and false facts to achieve their political goals " for the sake of safety" of course.
The real question is , how safe are we with Take Back Santa Cruz ?
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"TBSC snopes" outs TBSC dirty laundry.
TBSC keeps hollering for the NEP (Needle Exchange Program) to be closed because it causes extra environmental needle litter. Their conclusion is absolutely irrational. For example if in order to get a clean needle a person has to bring in a used needle. How then does the NEP cause more dangerous needle litter? A 1:1 exchange takes the used needle out of the environment, not the other way around.
TBSC thinks if it continues repeating its same false, deceiving narrative enough times it will make it true. The real facts are NEP takes needles out of our beaches, parks, woods and town, not puts them there. TBSC also calls for marking the needles, but they leave out the reason that it is not possible. The cost is prohibitive and it contaminates the needles by opening the sterile packaging.
They don't really want them marked because it would only prove that the needles out there are from legal pharmacy purchases not the NEP. Marking the needles would actually prove their propaganda to be false and fabricated. I say that if TBSC wants the needles marked then they should pay for it, instead of picking tax payers pockets on their wild goose chases. They demand all these costly procedures, but they don't want to pay for them. Haven't they cost working class people too much money already on their hate and bigotry?
Instead of shutting down the NEP we need to shut down Take Back Santa Cruz and their band of out of control vigilante haters!
TBSC thinks if it continues repeating its same false, deceiving narrative enough times it will make it true. The real facts are NEP takes needles out of our beaches, parks, woods and town, not puts them there. TBSC also calls for marking the needles, but they leave out the reason that it is not possible. The cost is prohibitive and it contaminates the needles by opening the sterile packaging.
They don't really want them marked because it would only prove that the needles out there are from legal pharmacy purchases not the NEP. Marking the needles would actually prove their propaganda to be false and fabricated. I say that if TBSC wants the needles marked then they should pay for it, instead of picking tax payers pockets on their wild goose chases. They demand all these costly procedures, but they don't want to pay for them. Haven't they cost working class people too much money already on their hate and bigotry?
Instead of shutting down the NEP we need to shut down Take Back Santa Cruz and their band of out of control vigilante haters!
If it was true 1:1, your rationale would be sound. It's not. Per their own policy there are exceptions to 1:1 and in practice, they provide needles on an as needed basis for harm reduction. That is their primary mission. Even if a sharps container is returned, they aren't opened or checked (per policy.) I understand the policy, but that policy means that there is no way to verify 1:1. So it is, as advertised, a Syringe Services Program, good or bad.
Dear Realistic Thinker:
Once again you are quoting TBSC propaganda for which you provide no substantiation. You make innuendoes and framed heresy claims, but never provide any evidence to back you up. I highly recommend that if you have evidence-proof of your claims that you should present them to BOS (Board of Supervisors) asap.
Counting kiosk needle returns by hand would put people at serious health risks. Now it would be a different story if the TBSC members claiming that they are being miscounted by weight offered to put themselves at risk and fund the counting of this hazardous waste. I would whole heartedly support it.
Basically to put it rudely: Put your money and your hands where your mouths are or Shut Up with false claims. People are tired of them and don't want to hear your whining anymore.
Once again you are quoting TBSC propaganda for which you provide no substantiation. You make innuendoes and framed heresy claims, but never provide any evidence to back you up. I highly recommend that if you have evidence-proof of your claims that you should present them to BOS (Board of Supervisors) asap.
Counting kiosk needle returns by hand would put people at serious health risks. Now it would be a different story if the TBSC members claiming that they are being miscounted by weight offered to put themselves at risk and fund the counting of this hazardous waste. I would whole heartedly support it.
Basically to put it rudely: Put your money and your hands where your mouths are or Shut Up with false claims. People are tired of them and don't want to hear your whining anymore.
My response at the Senile, page:
I'd say "Keep a close eye on these people. They seem to have lots of syringes for which there's no 'chain of accountability regarding their presence".
I wonder how many of these Take Back Santa Cruz people work in the medical lab or clinic biz or have friends in those businesses supplying them with biowaste?
I say this because, well... I get around a lot, and I'll be damned if I've found four needles in the last decade or so. One in a public bathroom, one in front of one of the finer watering holes in town early one morning... In a parking space, not in a bush, one on the sink of a bathroom of another of the finer watering holes in Santa Cruz, and one on top of an open wastecan in the bathroom of a local restaurant, and you know... I couldn't tell you their origin either.
But, on a similar topic of dunning dangerous and bad habits, what I REALLY want to know is why Take Back Santa Cruz isn't putting pressure on the city to limit CVS's alcohol sales at RiverWalk Plaza downtown.
I've watched a river wino buy a half-gallon of vodka at 7am in the morning yet the people who run the disinformation machine at TBSC will just rail on about the wino passed out by the riverbank
Truth is, I KNOW why.
Because Take Back Santa Cruz represents those commercial property and business interests and they CERTAINLY aren't going to bite the hand that operates them and sets their CryptoFascist agenda.
They're cryptofascist because they represent those commercial and real estate ... and control corporatist interests they've insinuated on Santa Cruz' 'government', yet fastidiously attempt to suppress knowledge of those connections, easily notable with any simple social network analysis, from members who don't have those connections.
TBSC attracts working, middle-class people who want to do something civic-minded, like the boy scouts might, at times scheduled with their work lives in mind, and uses those people as a base to project the underlying political and social interests of the business and property owning elements of Santa Cruz... You know, like the Venezuelan oligarchy might do.
Spread the word about Fascism in Santa Cruz, and read Eco:
http://www.pegc.us/archive/Articles/eco_ur-fascism.pdf
I'd say "Keep a close eye on these people. They seem to have lots of syringes for which there's no 'chain of accountability regarding their presence".
I wonder how many of these Take Back Santa Cruz people work in the medical lab or clinic biz or have friends in those businesses supplying them with biowaste?
I say this because, well... I get around a lot, and I'll be damned if I've found four needles in the last decade or so. One in a public bathroom, one in front of one of the finer watering holes in town early one morning... In a parking space, not in a bush, one on the sink of a bathroom of another of the finer watering holes in Santa Cruz, and one on top of an open wastecan in the bathroom of a local restaurant, and you know... I couldn't tell you their origin either.
But, on a similar topic of dunning dangerous and bad habits, what I REALLY want to know is why Take Back Santa Cruz isn't putting pressure on the city to limit CVS's alcohol sales at RiverWalk Plaza downtown.
I've watched a river wino buy a half-gallon of vodka at 7am in the morning yet the people who run the disinformation machine at TBSC will just rail on about the wino passed out by the riverbank
Truth is, I KNOW why.
Because Take Back Santa Cruz represents those commercial property and business interests and they CERTAINLY aren't going to bite the hand that operates them and sets their CryptoFascist agenda.
They're cryptofascist because they represent those commercial and real estate ... and control corporatist interests they've insinuated on Santa Cruz' 'government', yet fastidiously attempt to suppress knowledge of those connections, easily notable with any simple social network analysis, from members who don't have those connections.
TBSC attracts working, middle-class people who want to do something civic-minded, like the boy scouts might, at times scheduled with their work lives in mind, and uses those people as a base to project the underlying political and social interests of the business and property owning elements of Santa Cruz... You know, like the Venezuelan oligarchy might do.
Spread the word about Fascism in Santa Cruz, and read Eco:
http://www.pegc.us/archive/Articles/eco_ur-fascism.pdf
For more information:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/article/N...
It took nearly a quarter of a century but I finally saw my first needle. I have travelled all over Santa Cruz, visited the Downtown, used the parking lots, walked the sidewalks, combed the beaches, enjoyed the parks. It has finally paid off.
I found my first needle probably thrown over a fence into a courtyard where it was almost impossible to retrieve to dispose, so it was undoubtably impossible to be used and dropped. After 25 years I found my first planted needle, so I have yet to find a real one.
For all those Take Back Santa Cruz members in the medical field , it is not at all surprising that you find needles almost daily or everywhere you go. It is because you probably bring them with you. By exaggerating and planting needles you taint your whole argument. We are left to wonder how many needles really are littered? Where does the needle litter really come from? The dishonesty makes it hard to get behind your cause and discredits you as a group.
Shame on the Santa Cruz Sentinel and Steven Baxter for trying to bring legitimacy to your lies.
I found my first needle probably thrown over a fence into a courtyard where it was almost impossible to retrieve to dispose, so it was undoubtably impossible to be used and dropped. After 25 years I found my first planted needle, so I have yet to find a real one.
For all those Take Back Santa Cruz members in the medical field , it is not at all surprising that you find needles almost daily or everywhere you go. It is because you probably bring them with you. By exaggerating and planting needles you taint your whole argument. We are left to wonder how many needles really are littered? Where does the needle litter really come from? The dishonesty makes it hard to get behind your cause and discredits you as a group.
Shame on the Santa Cruz Sentinel and Steven Baxter for trying to bring legitimacy to your lies.
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