#Streets of rogue syringes crack#"Whether it's correlation or causation I don't know, but since we began handing out crack pipes, the percentage of people who come here and identify as white has decreased every year." (PHRA conducts annual surveys and elections, where users can vote on what they'd like the organization to do differently-like hand out crack pipes.)Ī few weeks ago, PHRA quietly launched its latest project: providing pipes to methamphetamine users. The community they served used to be "very, very white," he says. PHRA cofounder Tom Fitzpatrick, a medical student, says the crack-stem program has had one undeniable effect: It's diversified PHRA's client base. They let local law enforcement know what they were up to, but the police never interfered. Murphy says this was a controversial move, but PHRA did it anyway. The thin glass tubes used to smoke crack get very hot, sometimes blistering users' lips, and blisters on lips make shared stems a potential vector for infection. Because of the HIV crisis in the 1980s, says PHRA director Shilo Murphy, heroin injectors have gotten decades' worth of attention from the public-health community that has passed other drug users by.įive years ago, PHRA began handing out glass stems to crack users to help prevent the spread of hepatitis C. They pioneer new ideas, like trying to bring crack and methamphetamine users into the fold, and letting them know there are services and health-care options for them, not just the more traditionally accepted services for heroin users. "We love you and respect you," a volunteer reassures her.Įven within the context of lenient local harm-reduction policy, PHRA-which took over the University District needle exchange in 2007-has earned a national reputation for being rogues and experimenters. The clients who approach the table seem to come from all over the place: innocuous-looking people in midrange cars, scruffy older gentlemen with baggy clothes and gentle voices, a few cackling, wise-cracking ladies, the occasional jagged and angry young man, and one very young woman who looks painfully timid as she approaches the table. A nearby shelf holds dozens of pamphlets on subjects like proper vein care, which parts of the body are safer for injection than others, what to do if you're with someone who overdoses, HIV and hepatitis C information, a "bad date list" by sex workers about johns who are known to be difficult or dangerous, and so on. #Streets of rogue syringes for free#Two young volunteers from the Hepatitis Education Project encourage people to go inside for free hepatitis C testing. They also offer kits of naloxone, a drug that can be administered via needle or nasal spray to reverse the effects of an overdose. They greet and chat with clients while handing out clean syringes and other injection tools: little metal containers for cooking up a dose, tiny balls of cotton, strips of latex for tying off an arm or leg (as well as a non-latex option). On a sunny afternoon the first week of March, in an alley behind the University District post office, volunteers for the People's Harm Reduction Alliance needle exchange open the doors, set up their outreach table, and begin another afternoon's work.
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