A $120,000 grant from the Columbia Pacific Coordinated Care Organization will fund needle exchanges in Clatsop, Columbia and Tillamook counties.

Clatsop County’s harm reduction program, launched in 2018, will receive $70,000; the other two counties, which started their own harm reduction programs earlier this year, will receive $25,000 each.

Based at the county’s Public Health Department, Clatsop County’s program has exchanged about 1.5 million syringes, a critical step toward reducing the spread of needle-borne diseases. The program also distributes naloxone, an overdose-reversing medication.