Mamdani administration makes NYC’s cash-for-syringes pilot program everlasting

The Mamdani administration has quietly made everlasting a controversial pilot program that pays junkies money for handing over used needles — a transfer critics contend will solely encourage unlawful drug use.

Town’s huge $126 billion price range for the brand new fiscal yr that started July 1 contains $3 million to retain the Well being Division’s Community Syringe Redemption Program, which pays the general public 20 cents per syringe.

The announcement was made with little fanfare in price range paperwork the company supplied to the NYC Council on June 30, shortly earlier than members authorized Zohran Mamdani’s first spending plan as mayor.

Dependancy Response Sources, a nonprofit that launched an analogous program in Boston in 2020, will proceed to function the Large Apple’s program via an $11.1 million contract that runs via the tip of subsequent yr.

Individuals can return as much as 50 used syringes per day — amassing $10 — by dropping them at eight designated websites: 5 in The Bronx, and one every in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens.

There are not any present plans to develop this system, which makes an attempt to get hazardous syringes off metropolis streets, parks and different property. It was initially authorized as a pilot via laws backed by far-left Metropolis Council members in 2022 and formally started in March 2025.

This system is being paid for via greater than $189 million in settlement funds that town secured from main opioid producers and distributors.

Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) ripped the initiative, saying the settlement money “ought to all be going towards habit remedy providers — not for paying customers to show of their needles for money.

“All that is doing is placing cash within the pockets of addicts, to allow them to proceed to gas their habits, relatively than serving to them break freed from their illness.”

Greater than 2.3 million needles have been collected via this system because it started as a pilot almost 16 months in the past, in response to the Well being Division. Throughout its first yr, $292,000 in money was handed out to greater than 1,700 members, officers mentioned.

This system’s recognition has meant fewer needles for the Sanitation Division to select up — however the company insists it’s devoting the identical assets to needle removing in parks and different public locations because it did earlier than this system began.

Sanitation employees as of Wednesday had collected 26,229 needles this yr — or almost 3 times lower than the 64,560 they picked up throughout the identical interval in 2025, in response to the company.

Councilman Oswald Feliz, a Bronx Democrat whose district is house to 2 of the drop-off websites in Fordham Heights and Tremont, credited the clean-up effort however warned concerning the surroundings this system permits.

“Too usually, used syringes find yourself in entrance of colleges and kids’s parks, and this is a matter that must be handled with the seriousness it deserves,” he mentioned. “We should always not recklessly create circumstances that may threaten the protection of weak communities.”

Some admitted drug customers hailed the information — however pined for extra drop-off websites and no limits on what number of syringes they might convey.

“It’s positively a facet hustle for me. Yeah, positively!” crowed Tamia Wright, 43, after returning needles at Walter Gladwin Park in The Bronx on Thursday. “Proper now, I’m gonna purchase some weed with [the earnings] and cigarettes.”

Well being Division spokesperson Rachel Vick touted this system, saying “everybody deserves to stay in a group freed from syringe litter” in public areas.

“Town’s syringe redemption program permits New Yorkers in neighborhoods the place we see essentially the most complaints to assist maintain their communities clear, whereas safely disposing of medical waste and connecting folks in have to close by care,” mentioned Vick.

“We sit up for persevering with this necessary work within the years to come back.”