- I've had a lot of blood infections
and I don't know if you guys can see the back of my neck
but I have a giant scar from, I have two rods.
I have a rod here and a rod here
and they go down my back into my C spine and my T spine.
I have pieces of my hip in my neck
and that's all from using dirty needles,
reusing my needles, reusing the cotton pieces.
I don't know why I can't stop, you know what I mean?
I don't feel normal if I'm not on some substance
because I guess I've medicated myself
for so long on that substance.
I may not just like living in reality
because of something that I've been through.
Yeah, I've been through shit as a kid
but I don't blame that on my life right now.
Dude, this is different from a needle exchange
because the needle exchange just gives you supplies
and then you leave.
- The United States had over 100,000 overdoses last year.
People talk about recovery, dead acts don't recover,
they're not here!
- [Man] That's right, yeah.
- Right? (laughs)
633 unique individuals using our sites in six weeks.
Six weeks!
Over 6,000 utilizations of the site.
6,000 in six weeks.
New York City had a number they were putting out there
hoping that we would be able to have
130 individual overdose interventions in the first year.
We have 124 (laughs) in the first few weeks
or less than two months.
Behind those numbers are beautiful, kind hearted people
that just want to be here.
That want to be loved and cared for
and we get to do that,
and I ask you to join in on this movement.
Harm reduction is real.
Harm reduction's a movement.
Harm reduction is love.
I'm Sam Rivera, I'm the executive director of OnPoint NYC
and we're saving lives.
- Hi guys, everybody good?
- Yeah.
- Still good? You're right where I left you.
Welcome to the New York harm reduction educators
in East Harlem.
Come with me.
We have our lower barrier services on the other side
and we circle through our garden
into our drug user health hub here
where our participants can access low threshold
medical care, nursing and hygiene services.
This entire building is about to be renovated
because we're about to expand to 24 hour operations.
We're gonna have our own pharmacy installed up front.
We'll have four treatment rooms here.
And a big group room that opens out onto our garden space.
This is a really special program
'cause it really is low barrier healthcare
for people that are often excluded
from the healthcare system,
delivered in a loving and compassionate way
by providers that we trust and that we know
understand harm reduction for real.
- We have an array of services attached to what we do
because when someone in that moment
says it's time for me to try something else,
we want to be able to connect them.
Having wraparound services like case management
and medical care.
Having folks have the opportunity to wash clothes
and take a shower and feel good about themselves,
get a decent meal.
And then connect them to other services
like buprenorphine, suboxone,
and potential housing services, et cetera.
The safe consumption site is a place
where people are welcome to come in and use their drugs
in our presence so we make sure they're safe,
they're healthy and we keep them alive.
So if, during that time, someone happens to overdose,
we respond and keep them alive with us.
We have them spend as much time as they need
to feel better about moving forward with their day.
So they might leave the room when they're ready,
sit out in our drop in center,
go upstairs to our holistics program
and maybe receive acupuncture
or they can go outside to our garden.
It's an opportunity for people to use a variety of drugs
in a way that's safe and at the same time,
build relationships.
Oftentimes people use drugs in hiding
and that's why we lose so many people,
which is why the United States
had over 100,000 overdoses last year.
- [Man] What happens when somebody ODs?
- It basically depends on the overdose, how bad it is,
because sometimes you can see it's really bad,
sometimes it may not be as bad as others.
So we have the (indistinct) shots for the Narcan
which we try to use those sometimes
instead of the full Narcan, the nasal,
because the individual, once we hit 'em with the nasal,
they'll lose their whole high.
Even though the Narcan just blocks the receptors
so all this stuff is still floatin' around in their brain,
but they don't feel high, they go and use again,
and now when it all comes back it's like too much.
So with the (indistinct) shots
you're able to just ease them out of the overdose
but they still maintain some sort of their highness
which is better in the long run.
- You have an overdose downstairs, perhaps in our program
and imagine that this is the space
you get to come to recover from your overdose.
Where you're receiving sound therapy and acupuncture
and massage therapy with practitioners who understand
what you're going through
and want to make you feel comfortable and feel loved
and respected and accepted for who you are.
- There are people out there who think
we're enabling drug use and we're not.
It's not Nancy Reagan just saying no,
it just doesn't work.
It just doesn't work.
It's interesting that people also ask us,
why don't you just send them to treatment?
With the assumption that all our participants
haven't tried treatment.
How about 100% of them?
How about 100% of the people who have come into our program
to use our safe consumption site have tried detox
and treatment?
They're going to use, how do we keep them alive?
They're going to use, how do we engage 'em
in conversation while they are?
- I've been in treatment, like I said.
First time I went to treatment I was 18.
So I'm over ...
Over 10 times alone this last year.
Three times last year.
And then four years ago I was there like two times.
I went to detox rehab, detox rehab, detox rehab.
Then I went to the 69 month program.
I went through that program
and there was more drugs in there
than there was in the street and that shocked me.
The big thing just say no.
It's hard to just say no
when this has been in my life every day.
- It's a shame that people just jump to judgment
and say well, you're just enabling.
Well, we know factually what we're doing
is creating a dialogue for our people to get well.
Harm reduction is really the medicine for people.
Communities say they don't want drugs in their street,
they don't want someone using in the street
in front of their children,
or they don't want drug paraphernalia in front of schools
or on the street.
We agree!
Bring those folks into our facility and use here.
After someone uses,
none of their paraphernalia leaves the building.
We collect it all.
So we're creating a space
that not only keeps our participants safe
but keeps the community safe.
- [Sam] Oh my God!
- It's like this and then it goes whoosh!
So much so that (indistinct) and the commissioner
in the Parks Department is like what's happening?
- We need to get this to Alex.
- It's crazy!
- Oh my God, this is like look!
Look!
- But did you know that you're-
- [Man] That's what I'm saying,
what are we gonna do with that data?
- Yeah, yeah.
In New York City, I don't think it's unique to New York,
but a lot of our folks use parks.
That's where they hide out,
that's where they could really get some privacy.
What we just heard, which is literally right in the moment,
they used to collect thousands of syringes monthly,
and there was a huge drop
and the Parks Department reached out to us
and said what's going on?
We're shocked.
You have more people in the parks.
We have a team that goes into the parks.
So they thought for sure we increased our team,
they're not seeing the syringes in the way they were before,
and so Kailin pulled the data
and can see when the number changed
and it literally changed when we opened the OPC.
So all of those syringes,
what we found was we have 13,000 syringes. (laughs)
So we have 'em and it's just like wow.
Yeah. (laughs)
Yeah, it's just fuckin' amazing
that we're makin' that impact
and it is a big deal to make sure
not only that we provide services to our people,
but also impact the community.
We're not against the community,
we agree with the community.
So to know that we collected 13,000 syringes
that could've been in a park and we have 'em
and we'll dispose of 'em safely is beautiful.
- I've been homeless more times than I can count
in the last year and it sucks.
I'm a big believer in harm reduction
because it's saved me personally.
If I wasn't, I'd be using in the street.
I'd be using dirty needles.
I've picked needles up off the ground and used 'em
and stuff like that.
And none of that's healthy, safe,
and it's led me to be in the hospital multiple times.
The last time I was in the hospital
I was there for 80 days.
I had a blood and staph infection
and then I had mersa.
So I almost died.
- I've really seen what it's like
to not be able to get the help that you need
and not be able to be who you really are,
and the way that it hurts and divides families
and creates so much pain for people
that lasts for a really long time,
and harm reduction is a remedy to so much of that.
- It's a blessing to talk to people
about what's really happening.
What are they self medicating?
What is the pain they're dealing with?
Where does this come from?
What happened in your life or mental illness?
What is it that's driving you to self medicate?
All of us, many of us in this world,
we self medicate in different ways.
Some people self medicate through food, gambling,
through a number of things.
Shopping.
(indistinct) they're self medicating pain.
A lot of deep, deep pain.
We know that most of the people we work with
have been physically abused, have been sexually abused.
There are elements of pain
that people just oftentimes can't recognize.
I was talkin' to a few of our participants
and they were like well,
I can't remember anything major in my life,
and then as we're talking they go,
it's not like my mom who used to get abused in front of me,
and I'm like there it is!
There it is!
At the core of your drug use
is this trauma you're self medicating.
Harm reduction has and continues to save lives
in the most remarkable ways.
Dead users don't go to treatment
and dead users don't recover
and dead users don't get well or be with their families
and spend holidays
and become what people might want them to be.
But what do they want to be, right?
They want to be alive first,
so we gotta keep 'em alive.
Harm reduction keeps them alive.
Harm reduction creates a safe, loving space.
When people enter our program
and when people enter our safe consumption site,
things shift in a way that's mind blowing
because oftentimes when people use, they hide and use.
Here, people use in our presence,
we start having conversations with them,
they want to talk about their life,
they want to talk about their family,
and it's just a shift in a way that's needed everywhere.
Allow us to exist, allow us to open up in other places.
We are on the phone with multiple cities every night,
every day, folks everywhere want this opportunity.
Harm reduction works.
Harm reduction is important.
Harm reduction keeps people alive.
We were the ones who were able to prove it works
here in the United States, thank you for that.
Please support folks in your neighborhood.
If you hear the term harm reduction,
I hope you understand it better.
I hope you know it's a loving health intervention
that keeps people alive.
Working with people
who too many others see them as disposable.
People who have been forgotten for way too long.
To watch beautiful people feel grateful
about just being treated as human.
What we're doing as far as operating
the first two safe consumption sites
in the country of the United States,
it's really important that we all celebrate this
and we find out how do we open the second and third
and the 21st and more and more and more.
(slow electronic music)