Terry DeMio

tdemio@enquirer.com

DOWNTOWN - Elizabeth "Libby" Harrison, the former manager of a local needle exchange program, is no longer facing drug paraphernalia possession charges after she was arrested in August for having an uncapped needle in her vehicle.

However, Harrison pleaded guilty Tuesday in Hamilton County Municipal Court to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge in connection with her arrest in Norwood earlier this year. Harrison's plea, which Judge Bernie Bouchard accepted, followed a deal her attorney William Gallagher negotiated with prosecutors. She also paid a fine of $150 and court costs.

The conviction ends the case launched by the Norwood Police Department, which charged Harrison with illegal use or possession of drug use instruments after they found her car with the gearshift in drive on the shoulder of Interstate 71. An officer banged on the window to rouse Harrison.

Harrison told police that she suffers from hypoglycemia and must have passed out because of the condition.

The Norwood police report said that officers saw a syringe cap in Harrison's lap and after a search, they found a bottle cap, a piece of burnt cotton, and an uncapped syringe

After the arrest, Harrison took at least two tests for illegal drugs – including one that happened a few days after initial contact with police. The tests showed she had no illegal drugs in her system. One of the tests sampling Harrison's hair, which can show longer term drug use, also showed no sign of drugs in her system.

“I just would like to get back to doing what I do,” Harrison told Bouchard.

Harrison said the University of Cincinnati, which administers the Cincinnati Exchange Project, ended her employment Oct. 19. In a statement, a university spokesman said Harrison's position as a senior research assistant at UC’s Winkle College of Pharmacy ended as grant funding that supported her position dried up. After Harrison’s arrest in August, she was placed on administrative leave.

"She started this needle exchange program," Gallagher told Bouchard. "A lot of people have benefited from it."

Even so, Bouchard said, "You of all people should know the death grip that heroin has. You'd better just watch yourself."

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Dr. Judith Feinberg, founder of Cincinnati Exchange Project who now is a professor at the West Virginia University School of Medicine, said after Tuesday’s hearing that Harrison had a “severe hypoglycemic episode while driving her car, which was being used as a substitute for the Cincinnati Exchange Project van because it was undergoing repairs.”

“She became progressively more alert after eating candy when the Norwood Police aroused her,” Feinberg said. Noting negative drug tests and the hypoglycemia, Feinberg said, “These facts exonerate her from the accusation of illicit drug use … and I sincerely hope that her name has now been cleared once and for all.”

Feinberg said that Harrison had linked about 10 percent of needle exchange program clients to drug treatment programs.

“It is accomplishments like hers that show the value of the principle of harm reduction as one tool to combat our devastating opioid epidemic,” Feinberg said.