Regulation of needle handouts fails

State Senator Lisa Reynolds withdraws a bill she had supported

Members of Portland People’s Outreach Project hand out needles, pipes and other supplies.

A locally generated bill to regulate handouts of syringes and pipes near schools failed in a committee of the state Legislature this week. District 17 Senator Lisa Reynolds shocked inner Westside neighbors by killing the bill, which she had supported, and by doing so without sharing her change in thinking with its supporters.

The bill was requested by Stadiumhood, a group formed two years ago by residents coping with weekly handouts of drug paraphernalia around Northwest 19th and Burnside streets by an anarchist group called Portland People’s Outreach Project. Friends of Couch Park was a partner in the lobbying effort.

Michelle Milla, co-convener of Stadiumhood, posted a summary of the process on the group’s website