WESTPORT, Mass. (AP) – Selectmen in this small town have backed down on their decision to make Westport the fifth community in Massachusetts with a needle-exchange program.

The board voted 3-2 on Thursday to overturn its own decision to start a program where drug users can swap used syringes for clean ones. The special meeting drew so many angry residents that it had to be held outside in the rain.

The selectmen touched off a barrage of criticism when they voted unanimously on Monday to open the needle exchange. Opponents said they feared it would bring addicts and crime to the town of 14,000 on Buzzards Bay.

“I want to begin my statement by apologizing to the residents of the town for not appreciating in advance the firestorm that my vote would create,” selectmen chairwoman Elizabeth Collins told the crowd at Thursday’s meeting.

Each of the five board members tried to explain their earlier vote, but they were interrupted by boos and calls to resign. A petition to recall the selectmen circulated through the crowd of about 300 huddled under a canopy of umbrellas.

Collins and one other board member, David Dionne, stuck with their earlier vote in favor of the needle exchange.

Only four Massachusetts communities operate needle exchange programs – Boston, Cambridge, Northampton and Provincetown.

Westport sits between Fall River and New Bedford, two cities with epidemics of drug use and HIV. Both have rejected needle-exchange programs.