A pale, thin girl with a short boyish haircut mills about at one of Phnom Penh’s two new needle and syringe exchange centers.
The girl, who appears no older than 12, says that for the past two years she has been injecting heroin nearly every day, shooting up tiny bottles of the drug that she buys on the street for about $3.75 each.
Ever since she began using heroin, she says, she has been using the same syringe. But at the new center near Wat Phnom, which officially began distributing needles Thursday, she has now turned in the old syringe for a new sterilized one.
“I feel good when I exchange the needles because before, I had used one needle for almost two years,” the girl says, between chatting with her companions and eating instant noodles provided by the center.
Some of the one dozen other visitors at the center play music and lounge on plastic chairs set up next to a cabinet full of new syringes, small rubber vials of sterilized water, and condoms.
The center, set up by the NGO Mith Samlanh/Friends, is one of the first in the country to offer a needle and syringe exchange program.
Friends began distributing sterilized needles and syringes in January, but it officially launched the program Thursday after it was granted approval from the Ministry of Interior and the National Authority for Combating Drugs.
As part of its one-year pilot project, Friends is offering needle and syringe exchanges at two other centers in Kratie and Kompong Speu provinces, aiming to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS among drug-using street youth.
The idea for the program emerged after a survey conducted by Friends showed a rise in intravenous drug use among street youth, said David Harding, technical assistant to the Friends drug team.
About 70 percent of youth who live and work on the street use drugs, the survey found. In 2002, five percent of that group used intravenous drugs. By 2003, that number had grown to 10 percent.
Using detention to force drug users to quit has a “100 percent failure” rate, Harding said. Many return to their former habits once they are released, he said.
“We will try to convince them to quit using drugs, but if they do not want to stop now, they can exchange their old needle for a new one,” Harding said.
In addition to the centers, he said, teams of Friends workers and former drug users are taking to the streets to distribute clean needles and educate youths about the risks of drug use.
Friends coordinator Sebastien Marot said the one-year pilot project will cost about $30,000.
Marot said promoting the exchange of needles does not mean the centers promote drug use. Instead, he said, the idea is to keep drug users from contracting disease until they are able to quit.
In statement issued Thursday, Graham Shaw, program officer of the UN Office for Drugs and Crime, applauded the government and the NACD’s authorization of the needle-exchange program.
It “shows the Cambodian government’s commitment to try to protect the human rights of the victims of drug abuse and to try to take this potential window of opportunity to help to reduce the possible incidences of drug-related HIV/AIDS transmission in Cambodia,” the statement said.
Others, however, have doubts about the program.
Though NACD Secretary-General Lour Ramin said the program could help prevent the spread of disease, he expressed concern that handing out syringes may only encourage drug use.
“I am afraid that [it] will encourage the youth to use the drug,” Lour Ramin said. He added: “The authorities should take measures to stop them from using drugs, not convince them.”
