Ben Conley
The Dominion Post
MORGANTOWN – Between October 2024 and September 2025, Milan Puskar Health Right’s harm reduction program, LIGHT (Living in Good Health Together), distributed 235,435 syringes.
Over that same stretch, the program collected 206,437 used needles for a return percentage of nearly 88%, solidly within the program’s goal of 85% to 90% exchange rate.
In the past year, the LIGHT Program accommodated 1,457 total visits from 594 unique visitors, including 195 new intakes from Monongalia (110), Marion (28), Preston (26) and Harrison (19) counties. No county was listed for the remaining 12 of the first-time participants.
The program’s numbers are up across the board over this time last year, when 186,580 syringes were distributed (79% returned) to 545 unique visitors across 1,364 total visits.
Milan Puskar Health Right Executive Director Laura Jones updated Morgantown City Council on the status of the program this week in conjunction with Health Right’s request for a letter supporting the continuation of the program, which hit its 10-year anniversary in August.
Annual letters of support from both the city and county became a requirement for needle exchange programs following the 2021 passage of SB334 by the West Virginia Legislature.
Further, the law mandates such programs require proof of residency and account for distribution with a one-to-one exchange of used syringes for new.
The law also requires needle exchange programs provide additional harm reduction services.
To that end, Jones said more than 900 wound care kits have been distributed through LIGHT, and a nurse practitioner is on hand weekly to assist with wound care and any other medical issues brought forward by program participants.
The program, working through the larger clinic, also encourages and provides testing for bloodborne illnesses, like Hepatitis C and HIV.
“We just recently tested approximately 25 people for Hep C, and five of them were positive, so it’s important for us to be doing those screenings in our community,” Jones said, later adding, “As far as we are aware, Morgantown and Mon County have not yet had an HIV case related to IV drug use. So we hope that our program will continue to survive and continue to be able to provide the services that are so necessary for the folks in our county. Our numbers are higher than last year, but still remain low. We had a high of 1,300 people back in the early days of the program.”
While treatment is always encouraged, Jones said pressuring LIGHT participants into treatment programs doesn’t work.
She pointed out that 184 of the new intakes over the past year had been in treatment previously.
“We know treatment is not a one and done. It often takes many times before people are successful. That’s why our program is so important, because we want them to stay healthy until they’re ready for treatment again,” she said. “Our goal as a harm reduction program is not necessarily to force people into treatment. We don’t agree with that. We strongly believe that we are to help empower people to make that decision on their own, and that’s what we continue to do.”
It was noted that the number of local overdoses has decreased dramatically since 2021.
While the decrease is likely the result of multiple factors, the more than 3,000 doses of Narcan (Naloxone) distributed through the LIGHT program in the past year is likely among them. Health Right has been recognized as a national leader in the distribution of the overdose-reversing drug having previously distributed more than 22,000 doses in a two-year span.
Jones noted council’s letter of support, which was approved, covers both Health Right’s current Spruce Street location as well as its future home at 10 Scott Avenue.
According to Jones, the final hurdle remaining prior to relocation is a visit and behavioral health center license from the Office of Health Facilities Licensure.
“We can’t see anyone in that facility until we are licensed as a behavioral health center. We are waiting for them to call us and tell us they’re coming for a site visit,” she said, explaining Health Right submitted its application in late October. “I hope that their visit will happen sometime in early December.”
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