Dearborn Heights, MI Public Health Rules: Syringe Disposal (2026)

Dearborn Heights City Code § 20-249, carried over from § 9.169(4) of the 1969 Code, makes it unlawful for any person to deliver, furnish, supply or give away any empty gelatin capsule, hypodermic syringe, needle or other instrument adapted for injecting controlled substances to anyone known to be a nonmedical habitual user of controlled substances. The ordinance defines that phrase narrowly: a nonmedical habitual user is someone who uses controlled substances merely to satisfy a craving and who has no legitimate medical need for them, distinguishing addicts from patients with a prescribed medical purpose.

The city's controlled substances division separately allows manufacturers, pharmacists, physicians, dentists, veterinarians and hospitals to lawfully purchase, possess, prescribe, administer or dispense the same substances and paraphernalia under § 20-247, so the syringe-distribution ban targets only transfers made to known drug users outside that lawful medical channel. Because no dollar penalty is written into § 20-249 itself, a violation defaults to the city's general penalty at § 1-8: a fine of up to $500.00, imprisonment for up to 90 days, or both, with each day a violation continues charged as a separate offense.

The Dearborn Heights Police Department, which enforces the city's controlled-substances and narcotics-paraphernalia provisions generally, would investigate a report of someone knowingly supplying syringes to a habitual user. The section does not regulate sharps waste disposal or establish any city-run needle-exchange or harm-reduction site; it restricts private distribution of injection equipment to habitual drug users.