Derek was 17 when he took his first pill
and he died just two weeks after his18th birthday.
Even after my child died, that certainly wasn't the end of it. Other people died.
One of my son's best friends when she was 20 years old
told me that she had already been to 11 funerals of friends that they all grew up with.
The United States is in the middle of an opioid crisis.
Nearly a hundred people a day are dying just from opioid overdose.
One of the most effective responses to the opioid epidemic
is through a frontline public health intervention known as syringe exchange.
Syringe exchange programs not only give clean needles to people
who are using drugs they take dirty needles off the streets
they also reduce HIV and hepatitis C transmission and offer naloxone,
the overdose reversal drug to reduce overdose deaths.
Right now there is only one syringe exchange in the state of Florida
and that's in Miami.
You would find needles here in this patch of grass.
Used to be able find a lot of needles under those trees. Don't find them there anymore.
They know that for every needle they bring me, I'm gonna give him a needle.
We have this wonderful program for people here in Miami
but I feel that until this is in the entire state we cannot stop.
Unfortunately Florida's had the highest rate of new HIV infections
in the country and we had this huge opioid crisis.
After the pill mills closed, there was lack of access to opioids.
People were pushed towards using street drugs
and then they had no access to clean syringes.
If you've got your drugs and you're an IV user and somebody else has a needle
and you don't, you're not gonna not get your fix because their needle's dirty.
We've handed out about 90,000 needles. We've done hundreds of HIV and hepatitis C tests.
We've been able to link people to care for HIV and we've also been able to get people
into substance use disorder treatment.
Originally they were helping me to keep my habit, to do that as safely as possible
but when I found out about the treatment options, I took advantage of that almost immediately.
I was able to get clean, I was able to get my family back.
I was able to get off the drugs.
Syringe exchange programs cost very little and save the public millions of dollars.
When I have a patient in the hospital who has endocarditis which is an infection of the heart valves
that comes from using dirty needles,
just that person's hospitalization could pay for a needle exchange program
to operate for an entire year and that's one person.
We have one of the largest overdose rates in Palm Beach County
and the state of Florida. I see this needle exchange program is absolutely something
that we need to support and make happen.
So all we're doing is here's something that can help stop disease.
Here's something we can do that costs a few cents so let's just why don't we just do that
and the only reason to not do that
is if you don't think those people are worth helping or saving
so I mean that's where it becomes like a human rights issue for me.
It's like these lives are worth saving.
What kind of family does a drug user come from?
Well they can come from any family. These kids could not have been loved more.
They couldn't have...
There is going to be a huge fight as we make a meaningful response to the opioid epidemic nationwide
and any response has to include needle exchange.
If you're not including harm reduction, you're really not addressing the the problem.
If you're not looking at HIV prevention, if you're not looking at overdose prevention
the handing out of the naloxone, you're really just not doing anything for the opioid epidemic.