Featuring

• [Moderator] Jessica Shortall, Manager, Safer From Harm Coalition

• Stacey McKenna, PhD, Senior Policy Fellow, Integrated Harm Reduction, R Street Institute

• Marc Burrows, MSW, LMSW, CPSS, a person in long-term recovery, founder of South Carolina’s first Syringe Service Program “Challenges Inc”, and practitioner of counseling with MAT/MOUD.

• Chief Thomas Synan Jr., a United States Marine Corps veteran, a 30-year police veteran, a 10-year SWAT veteran, and the Police Chief with the Newtown, Ohio Police Department.

Overview:

Syringe services programs (SSPs), once known as “needle exchanges,” are one of the oldest and most evidence-based forms of harm reduction. By providing sterile syringes to people who inject drugs, SSPs prevent the transmission of HIV and hepatitis C; build trust with people who use drugs; and create deep community linkages with health care, counseling, recovery, and other essential services.

SSPs deliver short- and long-term value to people’s lives as well as to public health, communities, first responders, and public budgets. Numerous states have authorized SSP operations in various ways, but there is more work to be done. In many states, SSPs are alive and well; in others, they operate in a legal gray area. And some states still have not authorized SSPs to provide these life-saving services and tools.