By: Pauli Gray

The thing is...

That IDU’s can be anyone. They are anybody.

Everybody is somebody’s kid, or Mom, or Dad, brother, sister, cousin, Auntie, best friend….

What we are saying is that nobody is dispensable. Every life is worth basic human rights. It doesn’t matter if you drink or shoot your substances. Human rights are human rights. The thing is…

I’ve been doing this for so long. So many people, so many different kinds of people have come up to me in the most random and varied of places saying. “Do you remember me? I have something to tell you. You saved my life. Needle exchange is the only reason I don’t have AIDS or Hep C. It’s where I learned how not to overdose. It’s the only place I was treated with respect, where I was reminded that I am worth something. I’m clean now and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without Needle Exchange. Thank you Thank you.”

The thing is...

That’s just one story that I hear over and over. There are many more.

The thing is...

That our Governor took the money from the Needle Exchanges, basically leaving people to get sick and die.

The thing is...

It’s difficult for a man to contract HIV from a woman in the US by having vaginal sex. Women catch it from men so much easier. Men contract it by sharing needles. Then they give it to women.

Did you ever wonder why, in the US, the HIV numbers are so different by sexual preference and area? Here’s one reason. In NYC the disease is 40% African American women alone. On the east coast and especially in the south of late this disease is rampant among women of color. In San Francisco and on the west coast it’s almost entirely men who have sex with men. There aren’t all that many women that have it comparatively. The reason is Needle Exchange. The east coast has not given it the support we have in the west coast

The thing is...

That’s about to be taken away. Needle exchange saves women and children. Needle exchange affects us all and helps keep us all safe.

The thing is...

That this is our chance to save so many lives.

The thing is...

It will pay for itself so many times over. 40,000 bucks a year for HIV treatment? 20 Billion each year for people who die in the Hospital? 30 bucks to provide someone clean syringes for a year?

The thing is...

We have to work together and it starts now.

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