NCHRC News and Events

NCHRC Featured In the Winston-Salem Journal

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

January 19th, 2013, N.C. poll: police support removing needles from drug paraphernalia law

http://www.journalnow.com/news/local/article_765e24b8-6285-11e2-b299-0019bb30f31a.html?mode=story

January 20th, 2013, Group argues removing needles from drug paraphernalia law safer for officers

http://www.journalnow.com/news/state_region/article_c1c99530-6371-11e2-ba17-0019bb30f31a.html#facebook-comments

STUDY REVEALS THAT NC LAW ENFORCEMENT WANT TO REFORM PARAPHERNALIA LAWS

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Tessie Castillo, 919-809-7718, tswopecastillo@gmail.com

STUDY REVEALS THAT NC LAW ENFORCEMENT WANT TO REFORM PARAPHERNALIA LAWS

A 2012 IRB approved study surveyed officers in 61 departments throughout the state on their attitudes towards syringe decriminalization, removing syringes from the list of drug paraphernalia. Of the officers surveyed, 9.5% had suffered an accidental needle-stick or cut on a crack pipe. These occupational hazards typically occur when an officer is searching a suspect, and can expose the officer to blood borne diseases such as HIV or hepatitis C.

Seventy-eight percent of officers surveyed expressed concern over contracting HIV or hepatitis C from a needle-stick injury, while 87 and 84% respectively, agreed that decriminalizing syringes would lower rates of HIV and hepatitis C in the community. A decisive 84% of officers reported a positive impression of syringe decriminalization, while 77% agreed that it would make the community safer. The results of the study reflect officers’ awareness of the dangers of needle-stick injuries, and the benefits of reforming paraphernalia laws, including lower disease rates, lower needle-stick rates, fewer dirty needles in the streets, and more time to direct towards more serious crimes instead of misdemeanor paraphernalia charges. Interestingly, the survey also included officers in South Carolina, a state where syringes are already decriminalized. The rate of needle-stick injuries in South Carolina was half the rate in North Carolina, where paraphernalia laws are much stricter.

The survey also addressed a long-standing controversy surrounding whether decriminalizing syringes would increase drug use. More than half of officers disagreed, stating that people who use drugs will use them with or without access to sterile equipment. This opinion reflects both the officers’ experience and numerous empirical studies on the relationship between syringe access and drug use that demonstrate that syringe decriminalization does not mean more drugs or more drug use.

Access the full results of the study at http://www.nchrc.org/news-and-events/news/results-of-the-nc-law-enforcement-syringe-attitudes-survey/

NCHRC on ABC News Raleigh Tonight

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700

http://triangle.news14.com/content/top_stories/667229/advocates-push-for-good-samaritan-911-law

Advocates push for Good Samaritan 911 law

RALEIGH -- Chad Sanders lost his sister seven years ago to a drug overdose.

“Shelley was just vibrant,” said Chad. “She was intelligent. She was compassionate.”

But Shelley was also an addict. She died in a college dorm room in North Carolina even though another person was there who could have called 911.

“When my daughter was found unresponsive, her friend panicked,” says BJ Sanders, Shelley's mom, “and eventually fled the scene without calling 911.”

The friend was a recent parolee, afraid he would be arrested if he called to help.

Now the Sanders family and other advocates want lawmakers to consider putting North Carolina on the list of states adding Good Samaritan 911 laws.

“Typically what they do is remove the possibility that those persons could be prosecuted for small crimes like possession of drugs, possession of drug paraphernalia,” says Corey Davis with The Network for Public Health Law. “Things that people are worried about might get them arrested if they call 911.”

Since 1999, accidental deaths due to poisoning in North Carolina have increased 309 percent, going from just 279 deaths to 1,140.

Right now, several states have some sort of Good Samaritan 9-1-1 law, and North Carolina is in the beginning phases of discussing this type of legislation.

Davis said by relaxing rules on minor crimes, deaths could be prevented.

“It is not going to increase drug abuse. It is not going to increase crime,” said Davis. “But it is a way to save lives.”

For the Sanders family, they believe a Good Samaritan Law would have given Shelley a chance for survival.

“She obviously made some bad choices,” said her mom. “But she was on the road to recovery and she was within a few days of coming home. And she was like, 'Mom, I am coming home. I am coming home', because she wanted to come home to get help. And unfortunately without those laws in place, she did not make it home.”

A legislative study committee is currently considering this proposal, and will decide if they want to endorse this sort of legislation to the full General Assembly.

NCHRC Featured on the Fix

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0700

NCHRC was featured on the fix today, check it out....

Should Syringes Be Decriminalized?

Advocates argue that lifting laws against syringes would make both addicts and police officers safer.

http://www.thefix.com/content/syringes-decriminalize-harm-reduction90845

CHECK OUT OUR UPCOMING EVENTS

Thu, 03 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Check out our upcoming events, go to the following webpage: http://www.nchrc.org/news-and-events/events/

NCHRC's Executive Director Robert Childs Named "One of Five People Who Made A Difference in HIV in 2011 in the US"

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Read the article from thebody.com here

Southern Harm Reduction and Drug Policy Conference Schedule Bios

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Conference Bios

Daryl Atkinson

Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ)

Daryl Atkinson is a staff attorney at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) focusing on criminal justice reform issues. Daryl received a B.A. in Political Science from Benedict College, Columbia, SC and a J.D. from the University of St. Thomas School of Law, Minneapolis, MN. Prior to coming to SCSJ, Daryl was a staff attorney at the North Carolina Office of Indigent Defense Services where he co-managed the Collateral Consequence Assessment Tool (C-CAT). C-CAT is an online searchable database that allows the user to identify the civil disabilities triggered by North Carolina arrests, indictments and convictions. In 1996, Daryl pled guilty to a non-violent drug crime and served 40 months in prison. He considers himself a casualty of America’s ill-conceived and immoral “War on Drugs”. Since his release from prison in 2000, he has become a champion for formerly incarcerated people and criminal justice reform. He is a founding member of the North Carolina Second Chance Alliance, a burgeoning statewide coalition of advocacy organizations, service providers, faith-based organizations and community leaders that have come together to achieve the safe and successful reintegration of adults and juveniles returning home from incarceration. Moreover, Daryl served on a subcommittee of Governor Beverly Perdue’s Task Force to Stop Repeat Offenders. Most notably, Daryl and the Durham Second Chance Alliance led the first successful Ban the Box campaign in North Carolina, which resulted in the City of Durham adopting an administrative policy that removed the question about criminal convictions from the city employment application.

Leilani Attilio

North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC)

Leilani Attilio hails from Philadelphia, PA. She is a summer intern at NCHRC. She served as an Army Nurse Corp Officer for five years and completed two deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan as a critical care nurse. She recently completed a Masters of Public Health with a focus in Hispanic and border health at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Asha Bandele

Drug Policy Alliance (DPA)

Asha Bandele joined the DPA in April 2005, a few months after the historic implementation of the first reforms to New York’s draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws. She directs the Advocacy Grants program, an initiative that funds organizations dedicated to reforming drug policy through education and activism. In this capacity, she works with and learns from an incredible array of drug policy reformers across the United States. A former Columbia University Revson Fellow who earned her B.A. at The New School and her M.F.A. at Bennington College, Bandele has spent much of her career documenting issues of social concern through her work as journalist. She has published a wide range of stories in outlets as diverse as The New York Times, Family Circle, Essence and Vibe, among others. Bandele is the author of four books including the award-winning memoir, The Prisoner’s Wife, and recently finished her fifth, another memoir about raising a child who has an incarcerated parent.

Greg Bautista

Georgia Department of Public Health

Greg Bautista serves as the Project Coordinator for the Georgia HIV Behavioral Surveillance (GHBS) System. The Georgia Department of Public Health has a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to implement GHBS activities as part of the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance (NHBS) System. Operating on a three-year cycle, the focus of this study rotates each year among the following three populations: men who have sex with men, persons who use injection drugs and heterosexual men and women.

Mona Bennett

Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)

Mona Bennett has no letters behind her name and she has over 17 years of harm reduction experience. She is one of many, many co-founders of the Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition, Inc. She specializes in Shadetree Counseling and other Shadetree Services.

Eric Brown

Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)

Eric Brown is a member of the Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition and has proudly served on their community advisory board.

Katie Burk

Harm Reduction Coalition (HRC)

Katie Burk works for the Harm Reduction Coalition and is based in Oakland, California. In her position at HRC she provides technical assistance and support to communities working to establish and/or expand syringe access services. Her commitment to promoting the health and well-being of drug users, homeless and incarcerated individuals, and people living with HIV has spanned direct service in San Francisco HIV prevention and care organizations, execution of a needs assessment survey on release planning practices for diabetic inmates in the King County jail, and as a Program Manager for the Seattle & King County’s Department of Public Health as a part of its Health Care for the Homeless Team. She received her Master’s in Public Health at the University of Washington’s School of Public Health.

Yolande Cadore

Drug Policy Alliance (DPA)

Yolande has spent the last ten years working with grassroots organizations in New York City. Early in her career, she worked with the Working Families Party as one of their Brooklyn canvassers and later with the nationally known grassroots organizing and advocacy group ACORN as an organizer. Subsequent to her time at ACORN, she spent four years as the Lead Organizer at New York State Tenants and Neighbors, a statewide housing organization. Recognizing the correlation between degraded environments, including poor quality housing and poor health, led Yolande to WE ACT for Environmental Justice where she was the Director of Community Organizing for six years. As Director, she developed the organization’s outreach and advocacy campaigns. Most recently, she has been the National Field Director at The Praxis Project. Yolande understands the idiosyncrasies of disenfranchised and marginalized communities and believes that the strategic alignment of individuals and organizations is an important catalyst to effecting long-term social change.

Tessie Castillo

North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC)

Tessie Castillo serves as Harm Reduction Coordinator for the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition. Prior to joining NCHRC, Tessie was an outreach worker for farm workers in Wake County, a case manager for refugees settling in the Triangle area, and a Spanish interpreter for survivors of human trafficking. Tessie enjoys living and working with immigrants. She lives with her husband in Raleigh.

Jeff Cece

Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP)

Jeffrey Cece is a criminologist, drug policy analyst, educator and consultant. He received a B.A. from the University of Connecticut and M.S. from Florida State University's College of Criminology and Criminal Justice. He has taught nearly 1,000 FSU undergrads, most in his specialty course on Drugs in the Justice System. As a former researcher and analyst in the Florida Governor's Office of Drug Control, he authored Florida's 2009 statewide Drug Control Strategy and the 2007 Methamphetamine Control Strategy. He co-founded FSU’s Students for Sensible Drug Policy chapter in 2005 and currently volunteers as an advisor.

Dee Dee Chamblee

La Gender, Inc.

Ms. Chamblee is Executive Director/Founder of LaGender, Inc., an organization she created 10 years ago to empower Transgender people of Color. During her tenure she instituted a statewide needs assessment for data collection on Trans-people and held the first Southeastern Transgender Wellness Conference in Atlanta, GA. As an advocate her speaking abilities have been an educational resource for Georgia State University, Emory University and Grady Memorial Hospital, where she worked as a peer counselor for the Infectious Disesase Program . She has gained over 20 years experience doing grassroots organizing work. In June 2011 President Obama selected Ms. Chambleeas a “Champion of Change” and her blog about Transgender Equality appeared on the White House Website.

Hadiyah Charles

Harm Reduction Coalition (HRC)

Robert Childs

North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC)

Robert Childs, MPH has served as NCHRC’s Executive Director since 2009 and was just named one of five people who made a difference in HIV in the USA in 2011 by Thebody.com. In addition to performing executive functions, he is involved in all program activities including service delivery, program design, innovation and evaluation, resource development and organizing. Prior to joining NCHRC, Robert served as a Public Health Operations Manager and Program Director at Positive Health Project in New York City, where he oversaw the syringe exchange, arts programming, law enforcement relations (between drug users, sex workers and law enforcement), harm reduction programs serving drug users and sex workers and led research on the public health effects of people injecting in the public domain. Robert has worked in harm reduction and drug policy reform for over 13 years and is considered an expert on syringe access, harm reduction, law enforcement and drug user interactions, sex work and overdose prevention and has spoken on such at the United Nations, the FDA, New York City Council and the North Carolina, New Hampshire and Oregon Legislatures. Robert is also one of the founders of the Southern Harm Reduction and Drug Policy Network.

Alan Clear

Harm Reduction Coalition (HRC)

Allan Clear, Executive Director of Harm Reduction Coalition since late 1995, has been a passionate advocate for social inclusion, self-representation, and social services for drug users, marginalized populations, and people living with HIV since 1990. Under his leadership, Harm Reduction Coalition has become the preeminent US-based organization promoting harm reduction as a mode of working with drug users and noted for its capacity building, national conferences, resource development, and policy work. Mr. Clear was the original Executive Director of Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center, one of the five original New York City syringe exchange programs authorized in 1992. He is a member of the North American Syringe Exchange Network and the New York Commission on AIDS. Mr. Clear is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences on harm reduction, drug treatment, and drug user rights.

Cheryl Courtney-Evans

Transgender Individuals Living Their Truth, Inc

Cheryl Courtney-Evans, came to Atlanta in 1979. Through years of hardship while here, she found a place with LaGender, Inc., an Atlanta transgender support group, where she received certification as a transgender peer counselor through the United States Conference of Mayors grant program. Convinced there was another, better way to serve the transgender community, she joined the staff of Aniz, Inc. and through this agency was able to co-found TILTT,Inc. (Transgender Individuals Living Their Truth, Inc.) with Minister Lisa News onto facilitate this, becoming the first transgender support & advocacy organization in Atlanta to serve both transgender men and women. Since its inception on September 27, 2007, TILTT achieved incorporation, becoming TILTT, Inc., and has strived to assist transgender individuals in navigating the community at large, addressing those issues that would help them to more fully integrate into that community. TILTT, Inc. has served over 300 transgender individuals,providing moral support and general trans-advocacy. In April, 2009, Ms. Courtney-Evans participated with over 200 transgender individuals, sponsored by the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), in Lobby Days on Capital Hill in Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress members for passage of the Mathew Shepard/James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act with gender identity included as one of the protected groups, as well as the Employment Non-DiscriminationAct (ENDA). (She was gratified to learn of passage of the former in the House the day following their visit to “The Hill”, feeling their voices had made some impact. The Hate Crimes bill was consequently passed by the Senate and signed by President Obama in October, 2010.) In addition to her duties with TILTT, Inc., Cheryl now facilitates workshops and sensitivity [awareness] trainings, her most notable being with the Audre Lorde Leadership Conference (ZAMI, July, 2009), at the University of Georgia, Athens (March, 2011), where she presented “The Black Transgender Experience in America” (both venues) and AID Atlanta (November, 2011) for its staff. She is a constant supporter of human rights issues, with a focus on the transgender community in this respect.

Ron Crowder

Street Works

Ron Crowder is currently the Executive Director for Street Works. Mr. Crowder’s greatest contributions to the community have been his street outreach services. Since 1994, he has been at the forefront of HIV/AIDS education and street outreach services. He has unselfishly loaned his expertise to agencies that use street outreach in their services locally as well as nationally. Mr. Crowder has received numerous commendations, awards and recognitions for his untiring efforts in HIV/AIDS prevention and education; his most recent was the nation’s most prestigious Community Health Leadership honor — The Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leadership Program Award in June of 2005. He also serves as community Co-Chair of the Tennessee Community Planning Group, which is responsible, along with the Tennessee Department of Health, for writing the State’s HIV Prevention Plan. Mr. Crowder has a BBA in Accounting and is certified as an Addiction/AIDS Educator. He also received a certificate of HIV Prevention Leadership Achievement for successful completion of the CDC/ASPH HIV Prevention Institute. Mr. Crowder competed successfully against other HIV Prevention Program Managers across the nation and was accepted as a scholar in this one of a kind Institute funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH).

Nabarun Dasagupta

Project Lazarus and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Nabarun Dasgupta, MPH is a quantitative epidemiologist who studies the medical and use and nonmedical use of prescription opioid pain relievers and heroin. He has worked with and for diverse groups on reducing the adverse consequences of opioid use, including at the WHO, non-profit organizations, local health departments, and the pharmaceutical industry. Nabarun helped create Project Lazarus, an overdose prevention project in rural North Carolina (www.projectlazarus.org). Nabarun did his undergraduate at Princeton University in molecular biology and received a master of public health degree from Yale University in the epidemiology of microbial diseases. He is currently finishing his PhD in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health in Chapel Hill, where his dissertation work is evaluation of community-based opioid overdose prevention interventions.

Kelli Dorsey

Different Avenues for Youth

Kelli Dorsey is the Executive Director of Different Avenues, a membership-based organization in Washington, DC that works with girls, women and transgender people of color who have life experience in the criminal system and/or street economies. She has worked in harm reduction for over 10 years developing and implementing various types of sex work and needle exchange programs.

Jen Earls

North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC)

Jen "Crash" Earls works part-time as one of NCHRC’s Law Enforcement Safety Advocates. She is a former Chicago Police officer who recently graduated with a BSN from Duke University. She also holds a BA in Communications from the University of Notre Dame. While serving the City of Chicago, Officer Earls worked on the Gang Team, as a Field Training Officer, on the Targeted Response Unit bicycle patrol and many other roles. Even though she held many positions, she truly loved patrol and interacting with citizens of all stripes and backgrounds. An interest in medicine and health guided Officer Earls' decision to leave the department and pursue a nursing degree. Her passion is harm reduction and officer safety and believes that everyone deserves to work in safe conditions. She is dedicated to educating law enforcement officer's about the dangers of needles and the infectious diseases that officers working the streets might contract. She currently resides in Durham and will soon be an Emergency Room nurse.

Eloise Edmonds

Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)

Narelle Ellendon

Harm Reduction Coalition (HRC)

Narelle Ellendon is the Community Mobilization Manager for HRC, which provides national technical assistance and capacity-building services to support the establishment of new syringe access programs and the expansion and enhancement of existing programs, funded through the CDC Capacity Building Assistance (CBA) Services. Prior to this role Narelle was the hepatitis C director at HRC, overseeing the Hepatitis C Harm Reduction Project that worked closely with syringe exchange programs in New York City to provide trainings for staff and participants, advocate for policies and resources and facilitate improved access to hepatitis C related health services. Previously, Narelle worked in Australia as an outreach community health nurse with homeless, drug-using populations and as a registered nurse within correctional facilities.

Whitney Englander

Harm Reduction Coalition (HRC)

Whitney O’Neill Englander is the Government Relations Manager for the Harm Reduction Coalition, a national non-profit dedicated to eliminating disparities in the provision of health care and basic human services for individuals, families, and communities negatively impacted by drug use. Ms. Englander mobilized national advocates around health and budget policy at Faces & Voices of Recovery and served Congressman Kurt Schrader in a communications capacity. A graduate of the University of Oregon, Ms. Englander lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and two-year-old son.

Leslie Essien

Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)

Leslie Essien is a native of north Alabama. Leslie began her grass roots community organizing and social justice work in Greensboro, NC. As a four-year resident of Atlanta, GA, she continues to live out her passion for human rights and social justice by volunteering with grass roots organizations in the city of Atlanta. Compassion, justice, service and advocacy are central to her faith. Leslie is a recent graduate of Candler School of Theology, Emory University, where she had the privilege of marrying the academic education with the practical education she gained from working as a volunteer for Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition, and serving as a chaplain intern for Central Outreach and Advocacy Center, and intern for Metro State Transitional Center for incarcerated women. In her spare time, Leslie loves to read, listen to R&B and jazz, dance and travel.

Harry Ethridge

Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)

Harry Ethridge, Behavioral Counselor, conducts individual counseling sessions, facilitates group sessions and conducts social events. Mr. Ethridge also conducts HIV counseling testing and linkage to care events. He is certified in Safety Counts and in HIV testing, counseling and linkage to care protocols. Mr. Ethridge completes all evaluation materials. Employed with AHRC since May 2003, has shown exemplary style in managing peer leaders, overseeing case management, and more recently developing the outreach staff. He is able to balance workload, maintain daily interaction with clients and assist with medical provisions. He has extensive experience working with the people who engage in high-risk behaviors, HIV positive men and transitional housing management. Mr. Etheridge has experience in counseling clients through the process of setting goals, reaching them and providing detailed documentation. Mr. Etheridge is very knowledgeable on community resources. Has consulted with universities, community agencies and individuals for AHRC. Mr. Etheridge has been trained and has extensive experience providing Crisis intervention and behavior management, intake assessments and treatment planning. Prior to his employment with AHRC, he managed Men's Transitional Home and was responsible for individual and group counseling, provided recommendation for referrals to community-based organizations for continued treatment, along with writing reports for monthly grant monitoring.

Jay Fisher

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

Jay Fisher is a state's attorney, handling post-conviction matters on behalf of the prosecution. He has been involved in numerous murder appeals of both local and national prominence. In his mid-thirties, Jay reached a crossroads in his life where he had to make a decision on his stance regarding the drug war. On the one hand, he held very strong law-and-order personal views, and even applied for federal law enforcement positions with the F.B.I. and D.E.A. However, he also held very strong positions on issues such as government spending, bureaucratic waste and individual liberty. In the end, he opted for liberty, freedom and an end to government intrusion. Jay also represents his state's corrections department in constitutional rights cases. He has witnessed the overcrowding of state prisons with people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. "In my department, we have seven attorneys to handle all the post-conviction litigation generated by 50,000 inmates. Untold numbers of these prisoners are in for drug-only related offenses, eating up taxpayer resources for essentially victimless crimes." Prior to entering law school, Jay worked in public safety as a paramedic and E.M.T. for a large Southeastern city in the United States. He worked closely with drug addicts and victims of drug-related crimes while on the streets. He was also one of the first members nationwide of the Metro Medical Strike Teams, established to respond to mass-casualty, terrorism related events. Besides holding a law degree, Jay also has a master's degree in public administration. Jay completed his undergraduate work at Washington University in St. Louis.

Linda Flores de Leon

New Orleans Trystereo Syringe Distribution

Linda Flores de Leon, originally from New Orleans, LA, moved to NYC in 1997. From 2001- 2007, she worked at Streetwork Project, in both the Midtown and the Lower East Side locations, providing low-threshold, non-judgmental, harm reduction counseling and service provision. She also ran groups and specialized in working with injection drug users (IDUs), focusing on promoting self-respect and dignity through non-judgmental encouragement and education about self-care and safer injection. She has educated IDUs about opiate overdose reversal with Narcan and safer injection techniques to reduce the risks associated with injecting drugs such as viral infections like HIV and HCV, liver disease, bacterial infections and vein damage. From 2008-2011, she worked as a research assistant on a Community Health Care study of young injection drug users in New York City, examining incidences of HCV infection. She is a certified phlebotomist and a certified acudetox practitioner. In 2011, she moved back home to New Orleans and started volunteering with Trystereo Syringe Distrobution and would like to work more on bringing more harm reduction to New Orleans.

Kenneth Glasgow

The Ordinary People Society (TOPS)

Pastor Kenneth Glasgow is the Founder and President of the Ordinary People Society. His direction of TOPS provides rehabilitation to repeat offenders while creating a program that targets the youth before they reach the Criminal Justice System. In addition, Pastor Glasgow has gained the support of the National Leader and other Organizations along with the Alabama Department of Corrections by allowing him to administer TOPS programs in Alabama prisons and jails. He is the Convener and Co-Convener of the National Criminal Justice Coalition, and Co-Chairman of Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted People Movement, State Partner for the New Bottom Line Campaign with DPA, Chaplin for the Second Congressional District, and Vice Chairman of Houston County A.D.C. He is instrumental in registering over 40,000 ex-felons to vote in the state of Alabama. He is the first and only one to win a lawsuit were convicted felons keep their voting rights whether incarcerated or not. He has received numerous awards such as: Man of the Year, The Fighter of the Flame Award, and The Lyndon B. Johnson Political Freedom Award. Meanwhile, he has fed over 210,000 people in the past eleven years with Momma Tina’s Mission House. Pastor Glasgow has remained committed to saving souls and ensuring that redemption is in the lives of those who served their debts to society.

Hadley Gustafson

North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC)

Hadley Gustafson is an award-winning video activist with an MA in multimedia journalism (documentary storytelling + motion graphics) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She believes journalism is a powerful tool in the fight for human rights and social and environmental justice. Before going to grad school, she had an eight-year career in graphic design. Hadley has worked for NCHRC as a videographer and outreach worker for 1½ years, producing numerous video advocacy projects on sex work, syringe exchange, overdose prevention, harm reduction, HIV and drug policy in the South.

Jill Harris

Drug Policy Alliance (DPA)

Jill Harris is managing director of Strategic Initiatives, based in New York. In that capacity she leads the movement-building team to promote drug policy reform around the country in collaboration with national and state-based allies. Previously she served as managing director of public policy at DPA, overseeing the efforts of DPA’s program offices around the country. She has also previously served as DPA’s acting deputy director. Before joining DPA, Harris worked as a political campaign manager and was the early vote director for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign in Ohio. She also spent 13 years as a public defender with the Legal Aid Society in New York City, including two years as the attorney in charge of the Manhattan Criminal Defense Division, the country’s largest public defender office. At the height of the AIDS crisis, she defended a group of ACT UP activists charged with a crime for distributing clean needles to drug users. All the activists were acquitted based on a defense of necessity. Harris is originally from Eugene, Oregon, and is a graduate of Harvard University and the New York University School of Law.

Deon Haywood

Women With A Vision, Inc. (WWAV)

Deon Haywood is a longtime activist in the city of New Orleans with a history of organizing low-income women of color around reproductive health, social justice and women’s rights issues. Deon has served as a board member of the Women’s Health and Justice Initiative Clinic and represented WWAV as a member of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Advocacy Project (SRHAP). As an expert in outreach and community organizing, Deon provides consultation to nonprofits around the United States. Currently, she is spearheading WWAV’s advocacy project, NO Justice, a campaign to address the criminalization of sex workers, largely poor women of color with substance abuse issues, and the excessive and inequitable punitive consequences of conviction under Louisiana’s Solicitation Crime Against Nature laws. Recently, she delivered a keynote address at Desiree Alliance’s Conference, “Working Sex: Power, Practice and Politics,” held July 25 – July 30, 2010 in Las Vegas, NV. She has also been elected to the board of the Louisiana AIDS Advocacy Network.

Ralph Hendrix

University of Alabama

Ralph Hendrix began work in Criminal Justice programming (TASC) in 1977. He was case manager for nine years and was then promoted to program coordinator. His duties consisted of implementing federal and state grant programs and follow-up evaluations for the following: the Drug Use Forecasting project (National Institute of Justice, 1986); Office of Treatment Improvement - SAMSA grant to provide treatment expansion for Birmingham, Alabama; the 1992 RAND evaluation of case management models for felony offenders; and the 1994 Break -the Cycle grant (Office of National Drug Control Policy). In 1996 Hendrix implemented two drug courts, and in 2003 he implemented two adult mental health courts in Birmingham, Alabama. He is currently Program Manager of Jefferson County Community Correction Program, providing services for approximately 1200 felony offenders, including re-entry, prison diversion and alternative sentencing. He serves on a subcommittee of the Alabama Sentencing Commission to determine sentencing standards for new presumptive sentencing guidelines established in legislature in 2012.

Eleanor Hillman

Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)

Helen Hollingsworth

St. Stephen Lutheran Church

Helen is a Reverend at St. Stephen Lutheran Church in Decatur, GA.

Art Jackson

Independent

Art Jackson is a respected and innovative community educator of HIV Prevention and Care Services in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Born and raised in Orange, New Jersey, a 20-minute suburb of New York, Art graduated from Orange High School in 1983 and attended Penn State University for three years. Moving to Harlem, New York, Art has witnessed the evolution of HIV/AIDS from its inception to how we are currently living and dealing with this virus today. Since being diagnosed in January 1990, Art has been an avid and dedicated fighter for those living with this disease. Art has always believed in standing up for one’s right not only to live but to live proudly, productively and happily for who they are. Currently employed by Southern Regional-Area Health Education Center as a Retention Care Coordinator & Bridge Counselor, Art works to educate those infected and affected by this virus by finding effective, innovative ways to reach out to various communities living with this virus. Art also works with Community Health Interventions/Operation Sickle Cell as a Community Prevention Coordinator working to increase testing and referrals for those in the community whom may not be positive, to stay negative; those who test positive; or those who are positive but are not in health care. Art graduated in January of 2011 from the National African American MSM Leadership /My Brothers Keeper, Health Executive Approaches to Leadership and Training in HIV (HEALTH) Seminar Program. The HEALTH Seminar is a year-long program that enhances knowledge, skills and abilities for assuming a leadership/management position in the field of health with a particular focus on HIV for the next generation of African American leaders. Art is also Co-Chair of the Cumberland County HIV Task Force and an active Board member of the NC Statewide Community Planning Group. Art also has developed a one-day training called Positive Reflections of Individuals Developing Excellence (PRIDE) that is intended for young men 12-18 years of age to look at choices they make and how they can make more effective decisions for themselves by developing better coping skills. Art continues to search for innovative, positive and productive approaches to eliminating health disparities in minority communities and effectively fight HIV/AIDS.

Reginald Jackson

Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)

Tina Jackson

Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)

Tee was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. In 1997, she received her B.A. in substance abuse counseling from Charles Drew University. Tee has been doing outreach and harm reduction since 1992. She is also a Deacon and has been in the Ministry since 1992. She is a youth counselor for LBGT and has a feed the hungry outreach as well. Tee is also very familiar with addiction; she has been in recovery from crack for 20 years.

Jessica Land

Independent

Jessica Land is a sex workers’ rights activist, and member of the Prostitutes of New York (PONY), Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP), and Desiree Alliance. She worked under Priscilla Alexander at the Foundation for Research on STD’s, an organization founded to address the needs of street-based sex workers in NYC, and later served as Board Chair of SWOP-East in Durham, NC. Jessica authored the “News Shorts” column in $pread Magazine for two years, and has contributed to Boundnotgagged.com since its inception. She currently resides in East Tennessee and spends too much time on the internet, especially Twitter (@JessicaLand).

Nsombi Lambright

Uniteonevoice.org

Nsombi Lambright is the Director of Communications and Development for One Voice, located in Jackson, MS. One Voice is a community training and policy organization committed to raising the voices of the underserved in Mississippi. Nsombi is the former Executive Director of the ACLU of MS. Under her leadership, the ACLU advocated for drug law reform at the local and state level. In 2011, the ACLU released a report called "The Numbers Game: The Vicious Cycle of Incarceration in Mississippi". This report highlighted the misuse of federal funds for drug enforcement work combined with a broken justice system with over-zealous prosecutors, over-worked public defenders and tough-on-crime judges. Nsombi now leads a criminal justice reform project at One Voice to continue to advocate for a reduction in the state's drug convictions and more resources for treatment.

Michelle Lopez

New Orleans Trystereo Syringe Distribution

Samuel A. MacMaster

University of Tennessee

Samuel MacMaster, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at the College of Social Work at the University of Tennessee, where he teaches graduate courses in substance abuse interventions and research. He has produced three books and over fifty peer-reviewed publications related to substance abuse and/or HIV; and has significant clinical experience with re-entry populations. Dr. MacMaster works with numerous community-based organizations in the design, development and evaluation of services for substance-using populations.

Ronald Martin

North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC)

Ronald Martin works part-time as one of NCHRC’s Law Enforcement Safety Advocates. He is a former Detective Sergeant and is a dedicated, committed law enforcement professional with over 20 years of experience in the New York City Police Department (NYPD). At the NYPD, he trained officers to a highly proficient level of community patrol, enforcement and public security. He supervised narcotics teams conducting street level buy-and-sell operations and warrant executions. Furthermore, he managed mid to high-level narcotic cases involving pen wires leading to extensive criminal prosecution. Ronald also consulted directly with the Chief of Police and the Mayor of New York City on issues of internal misconduct. He has also conducted and investigated various criminal offenses while working as a team member in conjunction with the Secret Service, DEA, ATF and FBI. At NCHRC, he advocates for needlestick prevention measures for officers in North Carolina and for more dialogue between drug users, sex workers and law enforcement to create safer communities.

Bill McColl

AIDS United

William D. McColl, Esq., the Political Director of AIDS United, has worked on HIV/AIDS, alcohol and other drug treatment and criminal justice reform issues for over 15 years. He was Director of National Affairs at Drug Policy Alliance and an Executive Director of NAADAC: The Association for Addiction Professionals. A former Missile Combat Crew Member in the Air Force, he became a Captain in the Reserve. He holds a law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law, a master’s in International Relations from Troy State University and bachelor’s in Political Science from the University of Michigan.

Jeff McDowell

Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)

Jeffrey McDowell has been Executive Director of the Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition, Inc. for the past five years. During his tenure at AHRC, Mr. McDowell has assisted in the development and implementation of guidelines & SOPs for the state’s only known syringe exchange program located in Metro Atlanta. Since its inception in 1994, AHRC has served over 4,000 unduplicated intravenous drug users, averaging 350-500 clients monthly. Most recently Mr. McDowell was one of the Chief trainers/consultants for the Center for Disease Control National HIV Behavioral Surveillance (NHBS-IDU3) Field Operations Training, sharing “Best practices for maintaining a safe working environment.” Mr. McDowell served as a panelist for Center for Disease Control 30th Anniversary of AIDS Lecture Series. Mr. McDowell was one of approximately 54 Subject Matter Experts from across the country invited by the CDC (Center for Disease Control) to participate as a consultant in developing federal operational guidelines for Health Department funded SSPs (Syringe Service Programs). Since that time McDowell has launched advocacy efforts to address the decriminalization of sterile syringes in Georgia and the expansion of sterile syringe access. McDowell holds BS in Human Services with a minor in addictions, and is a graduate of Kennesaw State University.

Maggie McNeil

Independent

Maggie McNeill received her MLIS from LSU in 1993, but due to economic necessity started working as a stripper in 1997, just before her 31st birthday. Two years later she moved on to escorting, and soon started her own agency. She retired from sex work in 2006, but after a few years began to dabble in activism online, finally beginning her blog The Honest Courtesan in July of 2010. Her primary goal as an activist lies in reaching out to the general public in order to demystify sex work, to debunk the mythology promulgated by those who persecute sex workers, to demonstrate that sex work is not intrinsically different from other kinds of service-oriented work and to show that sex workers as a group are not easily distinguishable from the general population.”

Jim Merrell

AIDS Foundation of Chicago

Jim Merrell has worked in HIV/AIDS policy and advocacy since 2007. He currently works as National Advocacy & Mobilization Manager at AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC). In this role, Jim helps to coordinate the HIV Prevention Justice Alliance – a national coalition of individuals and organizations working at the intersection of HIV/AIDS and social justice. Previously, Jim worked as Policy Associate at AFC where he was charged with leading the organization’s statewide grassroots organizing efforts. As resident ‘tech nerd,’ he has helped to integrate new technologies into AFC’s policy work, including electronic advocacy systems, virtual trainings and an ever-expanding list of websites. Jim is a Pisces, loves to sing and holds a B.A. in Political Science from Northwestern University.

Zina Mitchell

Women With A Vision

Zina is a native of New Orleans; she was raised in Treme. For twenty-seven years, Zina’s life was dominated by addiction and survival sex. Connecting with WWAV was a moment that changed her life. Now two-years clean, she is living proof of the work that WWAV does and an inspiration for all of our clients. Zina loves working for WWAV, because she can bring hope to women throughout the city and teach them how to fight for their rights.

Michael Murphee

Southern AIDS Coalition

A lifelong resident of Alabama, Michael is a graduate of Auburn University at Montgomery and the University of Alabama. He received his Master of Social Work degree and is licensed at the LCSW level. Michael brings with him more than 10 years of senior-level HIV/AIDS, mental health and public health experience including agency development, professional and administrative supervision, grant project management, and professional speaking. In addition to his administrative service, he has direct care experience in Social Work, mental health counseling and HIV prevention education. The great majority of Michael’s life has been spent living and serving in rural areas of Alabama. Having grown up in that environment led him to an extra sensitivity to the specific needs and cultural differences that rural communities present. This background was particularly helpful during his leadership at Montgomery AIDS Outreach in Montgomery, Alabama as the agency expanded its HIV specific medical care to rural communities in Southeast and West Alabama.

Shilo Murphy

U District Syringe Exchange

Shilo Murphy is a former homeless person and long-time resident of Seattle's University District. He has worked at the University District needle exchange program for the past 16 years and is a co-founder and executive director of PHRA. Shilo is also a co-founder and president of the Urban Survivors Union. Most importantly, he is a proud drug user.

Taliba Obuya

Project South

Taliba, originally from Houston, is a graduate of Georgia State University. She began her struggle at the grassroots as a young person and has continued to connect human rights and the intersections of all issues to movement-building efforts in the South. She is an experienced grassroots fundraiser and is developing organizing skills on the local, regional and national levels. She has eight years of experience in leadership development work and community organizing, including facilitation, writing, public speaking and strategy development. She is passionate about the South, youth, and marginalized communities; and has a goal to develop strategic analysis that reflects Southern legacy and movement building from the grassroots. She is a national coordinating officer of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, and member of SPARK Reproductive Justice Now!'s core team, which organizes around the link of prison and reproductive justice.

Sharmus Outlaw

Desiree Alliance

Sharmus Outlaw is the Co-Director of Desiree Alliance, a social justice, anti-violence organization focused on human rights. She was also an integral member of the community-based team that developed the Move Along Report about policing and violence in Washington, DC. She has been a transgender and HIV advocate for 12 years and has worked extensively in the Washington, DC metro area on a variety of gender rights and anti-violence campaigns.

Perry Parks

North Carolina Cannabis Patients Network

Perry Parks, CSP; US Army Retired (Rockingham, NC), is a professional member of the American Society of Safety Engineers with specialties in both aviation and vehicle safety. He currently serves as President of the North Carolina Cannabis Patients Network (nccpn.org), a non-profit of over 900 members working to pass the NC Medical Cannabis Act. Perry retired with 29 years of military service as a helicopter pilot, including 30 months in Vietnam. He is a disabled veteran (with PTSD and Chronic Pain) and has chosen to treat his disabilities with Cannabis instead of the narcotics he was prescribed. He has chosen to wear his military uniform as a symbol of distress for the veterans who are being denied equal medical treatment for war wounds because of the state in which they live. He also serves on the board of the Veterans for Medical Cannabis (VMCA.org), whose director, Michael Krawitz, effectively worked with the VA to produce the Directive Outlining the Use of Cannabis for Veterans in states with approved state programs, which is currently 17 states. (See: VA Directive 2010-035 and VA Directive 2011-004.) Perry was one of five veterans featured in the documentary “The Good Soldier” that received the EMMY for Long Form Historical Programming (edited by Bill Moyers Journal) at the 2010 News and Documentary Awards. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star and other awards and has authored several articles.

Laura Pegram

Women With A Vision

A recent MSW graduate, Laura is currently finishing her MPH while working for WWAV as our Harm Reduction Case Manager. Laura has extensive professional experiences both in New Orleans and abroad. She currently focuses on social/reproductive justice issues, harm reduction policies and community/individual psychosocial health and well-being.

Maressa Pendermon

Unity Fellowship Church

Maressa Pendermon is a Reverend at Unity Fellowship Church, in Atlanta, GA.

Will Perrish

Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)

Sam Peterson

North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC)

Sam Peterson is a transgendered performance artist and antique college undergrad whose one-person show "F to M to Octopus" is fundraising this fall for a residency at New York City's 3 Legged Dog Theater in December. His writing has appeared in Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman's seminal "Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation" and The Triangle LGBTQ Monthly. He continues to speak engagingly and candidly about his addiction and recovery — and also the important role government-funded agencies played in saving his life multiple times — for social workers, high-school students, medical students, LGBTQI groups and more. He has performed for a variety of agencies, including the Carolina Women's Center, and was the keynote speaker at UNC-Chapel Hill's "Gender Week." He hopes you'll visit his blog, Thamansam.blogspot.com for updates, and notice that "thamansam" is kind of anagrammatic for "Samantha."

Guy Pujol

Interdenominational Theological Church

Guy Pujol, D.MIN., is currently pursuing a Doctor of Theology in Pastoral Counseling at the Interdenominational Theological Center. He is the former Executive Director of AIDS Alliance for Faith and Health (1998-2009). He holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Columbia Theological Seminary. Guy’s work examines the theological and religious barriers to HIV/AIDS prevention and care; his current academic interest explores narrative pastoral theological reflection on HIV/AIDS. As a pastor, pastoral counselor and nonprofit executive, he has been directly involved with nonprofit HIV/AIDS services and AIDS ministries since 1987. Guy is a regular presenter for local AIDS education programs in Atlanta, and travels nationally presenting programs on treatment issues related to HIV/AIDS as well as programs that explore the intersection of faith and health. Guy serves as a North American Advocate for the Global Campaign for Microbicides (GCM) and co-chairs the Theological Study Group on Faith and Health for the Society for Pastoral Theology (SPT).

Megan Ralston

Drug Policy Alliance (DPA)

Meghan Ralston is the harm reduction manager for the Drug Policy Alliance. Based in Los Angeles, Ralston’s work since joining DPA in 2006 has included implementing over-the-counter pharmacy syringe sales throughout Los Angeles County; organizing the first major US commemoration of International Overdose Awareness Day; and creating the first-ever Southern California Harm Reduction Summit. She has served as co-chair of both the Los Angeles Overdose Prevention Task Force and the Los Angeles Harm Reduction Collaborative. Prior to joining DPA, she created and ran Street Medicine, a Los Angeles volunteer-driven project to assemble and distribute first aid kits to homeless populations throughout the county. Ralston believes that all people deserve dignity, compassion and respect, whether they use drugs or not.

Daniel Raymond

Harm Reduction Coalition (HRC)

Daniel Raymond is the Policy Director for the Harm Reduction Coalition, a national training, capacity-building and advocacy organization focused at the intersection of substance use and public health. His work focuses on advancing policies and programs to address critical issues in the health of substance users, including hepatitis C, HIV, addiction treatment and overdose. In this capacity, he provides analysis, policy insight and technical assistance on the design and implementation of public health strategies to prevent harms associated with substance use. He collaborates with a broad network of community-based organizations (particularly syringe access programs), researchers, health departments, federal officials, national advocacy groups and other stakeholders to achieve these goals. Daniel Raymond also serves as the Chair of the steering committee for the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable, and actively participates in numerous other coalitions, including the Injection Drug Users Health Alliance in New York City. He serves on the Policy Advisory Board of the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research and as the Consumer Representative to the FDA Antiviral Drugs Advisory Committee. He is a frequent presenter at national conferences on a range of topics including hepatitis C prevention, syringe access and drug user health.

Tina Reynolds

Women on the Rise Telling Her Story (WORTH)

Tina Reynolds is the Co-Founder and Chair of Women on the Rise Telling Her Story, an association of formerly and currently incarcerated women who have been empowered by their own experiences while involved in the criminal justice system and beyond. Through mutual support, leadership development, organizing and telling our stories, WORTH transforms the lives of women who have been directly impacted by incarceration and changes public perception and policy. Reynolds has received a Master in Social Work from Hunter College. She is currently an adjunct professor at York, CUNY in the Behavioral Sciences Department teaching the “Impact of Incarceration on Families, Communities and Children”. She has published pieces on the abolition of prisons, the impact of incarceration on women and children, formerly incarcerated women and policy change and is an editor of an anthology “Interrupted Life: Experiences of Incarcerated Women in the United States”.

Laura Salm

Fulton County Examiners Office

I have worked as a medical examiner investigator for the past eight years at the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office, and prior to that I worked at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation State Medical Examiner's office for 2 1/2 years in the same capacity. Over the past several years I have volunteered at the Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition doing community outreach passing out condoms, IV drug use kits and supplies for basic wound care; developing an Overdose Prevention training program/eduction and training for local law enforcement on how to reduce needlesticks during the course of their day-to-day interactions with the public. I am also an advocate for Good Samaritan Laws in Georgia, as well as the decriminalization of syringe exchange to reduce infectious disease transmission and the sharing of needles between intravenous drug users

Edwin Sanders

Metropolitan Interdenominational Church

The Reverend Edwin C. Sanders, II, is the Senior Servant and Founder of the Metropolitan Interdenominational Church in Nashville, Tennessee. This congregation has attracted a broad cross-section of people with the mission of being “inclusive of all and alienating to none.” Metropolitan has outreach ministries in the areas of substance abuse, advocacy for children, sexual violence, and harm reduction, and provides services to persons infected with, and affected by, HIV/AIDS through the First Response Center, founded by Rev. Sanders in 1992. He was appointed to the CDC Advisory Committee on HIV and STD Prevention during the Clinton Administration and served five years on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS during the Bush Administration. He is currently involved with the Obama Administration White House Office on AIDS in implementing the National AIDS Strategy. He is a board member of the Drug Policy Alliance and serves as Chair of the HIV Vaccine Trails Network Legacy Project Advisory Group designed to increase the participation of African Americans and Latinos in HIV vaccine studies.

Roxanne Saucier

Open Society Institute (OSI)

Roxanne Saucier is an independent consultant and former program officer with the Open Society Foundations' International Harm Reduction Development Program, where she focuses on efforts to end abuses in the name of drug treatment, as well as efforts to increase access to the overdose antidote Naloxone. Prior to joining OSF, Roxanne worked for an organization that advocates for the rights of refugee and displaced women and young people. She has a master’s degree in public health from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from New York University.

Lia Scholl

Independent

Rev. Lia Scholl is a pastor and sex work ally. Having worked with sex workers for more than 10 years, she’s currently on the board of the Red Umbrella Project in New York. She formerly worked at HIPS in Washington, DC and Star Light Ministries, in Birmingham, Alabama. She pastors the Richmond Mennonite Fellowship in Richmond, Virginia. Her new book, I <3 Sex Workers is due out from Chalice Press in November 2012.

Shernell (Toni) Sells

Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)

Grant Smith

Drug Policy Alliance (DPA)

Grant Smith is currently the federal policy coordinator in the office of national affairs and a federal lobbyist working to advance evidence-based drug policies. In recent years, Smith has focused on raising awareness about fatal drug overdose in Congress and building support for federal legislation that would fund overdose prevention efforts. Before joining the organization in 2006, Smith served as a victim services advocate with the federal Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia, completed a one-year legislative internship with the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations Washington Office for Advocacy, and completed internships with Drug Policy Alliance’s Office of National Affairs and Transform Drug Policy Foundation in the United Kingdom. Smith completed a B.S. in political science with a concentration in criminal justice and congressional politics at American University. A native of Savannah, Georgia, where he was engaged in antiracism activism, Smith was drawn into drug policy reform after learning about the racial disparities inherent in the drug war.

Charles Stephens

AIDS United

Charles Stephens is the Southern Regional Organizer for AIDS United. He is a member of the AVAC PX Roar Research Advocacy Working Group, a member of the HIV Prevention Justice Alliance, and is currently Co-Chair of the Emory University Hope Clinic Community Advisory Board. He has a blog on The Huffington Post, and has also contributed to The Georgia Voice, The Gay and Lesbian Review, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Alternet, and Wiretap. He was also in the anthologies Think Again and If We Have to Take Tomorrow. He has also been a recipient of the Marlon Riggs Social Just Award and the Tony Daniels Community Award.

Chris Taylor

National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD)

Chris Taylor is the Associate Director, Viral Hepatitis for the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors. In this role, he provides support and technical assistance to state health department viral hepatitis programs, advocates on their behalf with the Administration, Congress and Federal agencies. He is actively involved in several national hepatitis advocacy coalitions, provided leadership as a chair of the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable, and was the founding North American delegate to the World Hepatitis Alliance. Mr. Taylor has over 15 years of experience working in public health on viral hepatitis, HIV, STD, tuberculosis and immunization at the local, state and national level.

Erik Valera

Latino Commission on AIDS

Erik Valera is the Program Director of Latinos in the Deep South at the Latino Commission on AIDS. For the past two decades Mr. Valera has been an advocate for the reduction of health disparities. He has successfully implemented programs in ethnic communities to improve the quality of prevention and care for all those affected. He is a first-generation descendent of Mexican and Cuban parents. Valera earned a BA in Communication Studies with a concentration in Public Relations and Organizational Communications from California State University, Los Angeles. Prior to his arrival at the Commission he was with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill managing operations for community and clinically-based HIV projects within developing communities.

Loftin Wilson

North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC)

Loftin Wilson works as Transgender Advocate & Harm Reduction Organizer for the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition. Loftin has been involved in organizing and advocacy work with queer, incarcerated and youth populations in NC for several years. Originally from a small town in central NC, Loftin attended Antioch College.

Margaret Wurth

Human Rights Watch

Margaret Wurth is a consultant for the Health and Human Rights Division at Human Rights Watch. Margaret previously worked for a rural health initiative serving Spanish-speaking communities in North Carolina. At Human Rights Watch, Margaret has conducted research and advocacy on barriers to implementing harm reduction services in North Carolina. For the past year, Margaret has worked in collaboration with groups across the United States on the use of condoms as evidence of prostitution-related crimes in several US cities. Human Rights Watch's findings show the practice limits sex workers' ability to protect themselves and fits into a larger pattern of abuse of both sex workers and transgender women by authorities. Margaret's efforts are now focused on expanding research to include positive models of law enforcement practice and furthering advocacy at the city and state levels. Margaret holds a Master of Public Health from Columbia University and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.

Jon Zibbell

Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Dr. Jon E. Zibbell is a health scientist in the Division of Viral Hepatitis at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Zibbell is a medical anthropologist with over 15 years of research and field experience in the areas of drug use and public health. His work has appeared in both academic and professional journals and he contributes regularly to independent media on issues that concern the health and civil rights of people who use drugs.

Stella Zine

Independent

Stella Zine is an American singer-songwriter, sex worker rights activist, blogger, tweeter, Certified Peer Specialist, former sex worker with 15 years full-time experience in sex work, an award-winning stripper, genderqueer and sex-positive feminist performance artist from Georgia. Stella is also a survivor of drug addiction (due to compassionate harm reduction techniques); she now has 16 years clean and sober. Stella is a multi-media cultural activist, based on an understanding that social change starts with culture; in the early 1990’s thru 2000 Stella founded the first Southern Riot Grrrl/Queercore band, Pagan Holiday, which was a multimedia music performance and activist project exploring sex positive topics, such as sex workers rights and gender politics. Hir band brought the politics of sex work and harm reduction to the forefront of discussion in the music media of Atlanta, being in Creative Loafing multiple times. She also interviewed in the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Southern Voice; was interviewed on all local network television stations; and was the main interviewee in a cover story in Creative Loafing on sex work in Atlanta. Stella is former board member and outreach worker for the Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition, was an associate for HIRE/COYOTE ATLANTA and was in the Atlanta Lesbian Avengers and ACT UP. She has a 20+ year history of community organizing, with a commitment to sex positive feminism, harm reduction and sex workers’ rights. Stella also is a GA DBHDD certified peer specialist mental heath advocate and recently spent three years in rural Georgia working for the state as a creative arts based peer councilor; while there she created an arts-based support group and curated multiple art shows in the community for rural, indigent, diversely-thinking people that were survivors of Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, GA.

Southern Harm Reduction and Drug Policy Conference Schedule

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Southern Harm Reduction and Drug Policy Conference 2012 Schedule

THURSDAY

(All Thursday activities are in the Big Room except for the Walk to Action Site.)

8 AM-8:30 AM	Welcome and the Singing of the Southern Harm Reduction Fight Song
8:30 AM-8:50 AM	Why We Need Syringe Access in the South
8:50 AM-9:10 AM	Why We Need 911 Good Samaritan Laws and Increased Overdose Prevention Efforts in the South
9:10 AM-9:30 AM	Why Sex Workers Should Not Be Criminalized in the South
9:30 AM-9:45 AM	Overview of Southern Harm Reduction and Drug Policy Network Action
9:45 AM-10 AM	Break
10 AM-Noon	(Everybody who can/is willing) WALK TO ACTION SITE (Georgia Capital-just a couple blocks from the hotel)
10 AM-Noon	(For those who don’t go to the action site) DPA Screening of "The House I Live In"
Noon-1 PM	Break
1 PM-2 PM	HIV & HCV in the South
2 PM-2:30 PM	The Importance of Including Drug Users and Sex Workers in Decision-Making
2:30 PM-3 PM	The Prescription Painkiller Crisis and What It Means for Harm Reduction
3 PM-3:30 PM	Break
3:30 PM-4:15 PM	Including Armed Service Personnel, Veterans, Cops and Reverends: Harm Reduction and Drug Policy Reform
4:15 PM-5 PM	Advocacy & Lobbying in the American South Panel
5 PM-7 PM	Break
Evening	Evening Activities: Social at the Hotel Pool

FRIDAY

	Big Room	Break Out Room 1	Break Out Room 2
9 AM-10 AM	National and Regional Drug Policy Update	Harm Reduction Media	Syringe Exchange in the South
10 AM-10:10 AM	Break	Break	Break
10:10 AM-11:10 AM	War on Drugs, A War on the People	Working with people of Transgender Experience in Harm Reduction	Crack User and Injection Drug User Harm Reduction
11:10 AM-11:20 AM	Break	Break	Break
11:20 AM-12:20 AM	Drug Testing Policy	Funding Harm Reduction and Drug Policy Reform	Sex Work in the South
12:20 AM- 12:55 AM	Break	Break	Break
12:55 PM-1:55 PM	LUNCH LECTURE: Faith and Harm Reduction		LUNCH AND LEARN: Reversing Drug Overdoses
1:55 PM- 2 PM	Break	Break	Break
2 PM-3 PM	Mass Incarceration	Street Nursing and Outreach Skills	Pill User Overdose Prevention and Harm Reduction
3 PM -3:10 PM	Break	Break	Break
3:10 PM-4:10 PM	Marijuana Policy	Drug User Stigma	Law Enforcement As Harm Reduction and Drug Policy Reform Advocates
4:10 PM-4:20 PM	Break	Break	Break
4:20 PM-5:20 PM	Sex Worker Criminalization	HCV and Harm Reduction	Advocacy Skills Development
5:20 PM-8 PM	Break	Break	Break
Evening	PARTY!

SATURDAY

10 AM-1 PM	Mapping a Southern Strategy (Big Room)
1 PM-4 PM	Drug User Stigma Training (Big Room)	Vine City Tour ($5; must sign up w/ AHRC in advance.)

Places to Eat in Atlanta During the Southern Harm Reduction and Drug Policy Conference

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Mara's Picks (Mara is a intern at AHRC)

Along with the American Roadhouse on Decatur Street, SE at the Pencil Factory Lofts and Flats, there is Marlee’s Tea and Coffee House on 349 Decatur Street, SE Suite F? Atlanta, Ga. 30312. Both of these are near the King Memorial MARTA Station [E2] on the Eastbound line.

There are some other restaurants open on weekdays around the Gold Dome – the State Capitol – and Five Points, as well as more restaurants in Underground Atlanta across the street from Five Points MARTA Station.

Mona's Picks (Mona is a harm reduction legend, in the ATL who works for AHRC)

-----Mona's Breakfast picks

Ris'a Bluebird delicious breakfast, delicious coffee
421 Memorial Drive Southeast Atlanta, GA 30312
(404) 521-3737

Highland bakery-delicious breakfast, good coffee
655 Highland Avenue Northeast #10
Atlanta
(404) 586-0772

Waffle house--You know just what it's about
100 Piedmont SE

Octane/Little Tart Bake Shop
437 Memorial Drive Suite A5
Atlanta, GA 30312

Grant park coffee-
Delicious coffee, also breakfast items, ice cream
753A Cherokee Avenue SE
404-856-0433

-----Mona's Lunch, dinner and after hours picks
Sauced-
Fantastic drinks drinks, fine fare
753 Edgewood Avenue Northeast Atlanta, GA 30307
(404) 688-6554

Six Feet Under-
seafood and drinks, outside seating available, across forma famous graveyard
437 Memorial Dr SE
Atlanta, Georgia
(404) 523-6664

Daddy D's BBQ Joynt
264 Memorial Drive Southeast Atlanta, GA 30312
(404) 222-0206

Corner Tavern-good bar food
464 Edgewood Avenue Southeast Atlanta, GA 30312
(404) 577-2310

Sound Table
483 Edgewood Avenue Southeast Atlanta, GA 30312
(404) 835-2534

Carroll St Cafe-small plates, great desserts, good drinks
208 Carroll Street Southeast Atlanta, GA 30312
(404) 577-2700

Nick's -Greek take out
240 Martin Luther King Jr Dr SE
Atlanta, GA 30312

Sweet Auburn Curb Market
209 Edgewood Avenue Southeast Atlanta, GA 30303
(404) 659-1665

Dakota blue-burgers and tots, salads
454 Cherokee Avenue Southeast Atlanta, GA 30312
(404) 589-8002

Grant central pizza and pasta
451 Cherokee Avenue Southeast
Atlanta
(404) 523-8900

Highland bakery-delicious breakfast
655 Highland Avenue Northeast #10
Atlanta
(404) 586-0772

Grant park coffee-also breakfast items, ice cream
753A Cherokee Avenue SE
404-856-0433

American Roadhouse

1660 Dekalb Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30307

Korean Taco

64 Peachtree St NW
Atlanta, GA 30303

(404) 223-7500

DUA Pho'

53 Broad St NW
Atlanta, GA 30303

(404) 589-8889

Caramba Mexican Restaurant

349-E Decatur St
Atlanta, GA 30312

(404) 525-0525

Dania's

26 Peachtree St. Atlanta, GA 30303

Phone: (404) 588-0069

RuSan's Midtown

1529 Piedmont Avenue Northeast
Atlanta
(404) 875-7042

Reuben’s Deli

57 Broad St NW
Atlanta, GA 30303

(404) 589-980

----Odds and Ends

Grady Hospital

80 Jesse Hill Jr Drive SE
Atlanta, GA 30303
Phone: (404) 616-1000

Liquor store
Azar's
48 Georgia Avenue Sw
404/522-1736

Sa-a-lot grocery-West End Mall
850 Oak Street SW

Cvs
520 Boulevard se
404/624-0022

Post Office
486 Decatur St SE
Atlanta, GA 30312
(404) 523-0177

How to evaluate sessions of the Southern Harm Reduction and Drug Policy Conference

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0700

In an effort to decrease paper waste, we will just be collecting evaluations electronically.

You can fill out surveys by going to:

http://tinyurl.com/SHRDPCeval

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEM2b1c3bVFKSmlQVk5DTkNmM0lmS1E6MQ#gid=0

Get to know your low dead space syringes

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The main brands (manufacturers) of low dead space syringes sold in the US are:

BD (Becton Dickinson)

Monoject (Kendal/ Covidien)

Terumo (Terumo)

Braun (Braun)

What are some specific low dead space syringes that are recommended?

-BD 1 mL Insulin Syringe with Permanently Attached Needle, U-100
-BD 1/2 mL Lo-Dose™ Insulin Syringe with Permanently Attached needle, U-100

-Braun Omnican® 100 Insulin syringe for U-100 insulin (1 ml / 100 I.U.)

-Braun Omnican® 50 Insulin syringe for U-100 insulin (0.5 ml / 50 I.U.)

-Terumo® Insulin Syringes 1 ml

-Monoject™ 1 mL Insulin Syringe, Permanent Needle

-Monoject™ 1/2 mL Insulin Syringe, Permanent Needle

GENERAL NOTES:

· 1 cubic centimeter (cc) = 1 milliliter (ml). I think “cc” is more common in the US than “ml” .
· Most low dead space insulin syringes are available in 0.3 cc, 0.5 cc and 1 cc.
· Most people who inject drugs prefer the 1 cc size.
· Most of these are available in several different needle lengths and gauges. In general, 1/2 inch long needles are best for injecting intravenously. Shorter needles require a sharper angle to reach a vein. Most people prefer 28 gauge (g) or 29g.
· Almost all low dead space syringes have permanently attached needles. There are some brands (e.g. 1 cc Braun and ½ cc BD) that have needles can be removed, but they are not made to be removed.
· Almost all insulin sold in the US now is U 100. So the syringes are U 100 insulin syringes.
· Almost all insulin syringes sold in the US are low dead space. Some TB syringes and some other types syringes are also available as low dead space, but it is probably easier in the US to ask for insulin syringes. Most pharmacists probably know the difference between standard syringes and low dead space, but these are not routinely requested.
· In some countries people need large syringes to inject homemade drugs and some types of prescription drugs. However, most people in the US do not need larger syringes. We are working with a leading harm reduction supplier in the UK to bring “low dead space needles” to market. These are not routinely available yet, and the dead space in them will be somewhat greater than in a syringe with a permanently attached needle. We do not recommend these in the US.

Check out the new NCHRC Video: Harm Reductionists Talk about Opiate Overdose Mortality Prevention

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Harm Reductionists Talk about Opiate Overdose Mortality Prevention
https://vimeo.com/51111302

NCHRC Board Member Bill Zule Makes the NY Times

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/health/thinner-syringes-may-reduce-risk-of-hiv-for-drug-abusers.html?_r=1&

Thinner Syringes May Reduce Risk of H.I.V.

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Published: January 21, 2013

A study suggests encouraging drug abusers to use thin syringes, which retain less fluid and the virus it may contain.

Distributing “low-dead-space syringes” to addicts could substantially lessen H.I.V. transmission among them, a new study has estimated.

Syringes have widely varying amounts of “dead space” — the amount of fluid retained even when the plunger is fully depressed, said William A. Zule, a researcher at RTI International and the lead author of the paper in The International Journal of Drug Policy.

Fat ones with interchangeable needles may have 40 times as much dead space as thin ones like those used by diabetics. And simulations of the way addicts draw in blood and rinse with water showed that the biggest syringes can retain 1,000 times as much virus as thinner ones.

Many foreign governments that distribute syringes ignore dead space and buy whatever is cheapest, Dr. Zule said.

Recipients of clean syringes are not supposed to share them, but some do. Users of heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine usually accept thin syringes, the study said. Users of poppy straw extract, homemade stimulants or crushed tablets may not.

The best way to get addicts to demand low-dead-space syringes, Dr. Zule suggested, may be to point out that they get more drug.

“That may not be politically correct, but you need messages that speak to the group you have to work with,” he said.

No human clinical trials have proved that such syringes save lives, but the idea is plausible and switching now would be affordable and safe, Dr. Zule argued.

National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators Comes Out in Support of Officers Carrying Naloxone

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

The National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators (NADDI) has taken a position to encourage law enforcement agencies to adopt policies that would allow officers to carry nasal naloxone with them to administer to individuals involved in a an opioid overdose. Proper training and certification by the proper authority of each state helps to ensure proper use of nasal naloxone on those in distress due to a drug overdose.

It is the opinion of the NADDI Executive Board that the ready availability of this product will ultimately save many lives, as police officers are oftentimes the first responders where delays of only a few seconds can mean the difference between life and death.

http://www.naddi.org/aws/NADDI/pt/sd/news_article/62028/_PARENT/layout_details/false

North Carolina Republicans Introduce 911 Good Samaritan, Naloxone Liabilty Reduction and Comprehensive Overdose Prevention Bill

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

You advocated, our legislators listened! Sen. Allran and Sen. Bingham just introduced a 911 Good Sam/Naloxone Access/Overdose Prevention Bill for North Carolina!

http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S20v0.pdf

911 Good Samaritan/Naloxone Access Law Passes NC General Assembly

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

911 Good Samaritan/Naloxone Access Law Passes NC General Assembly

On Wednesday, April 3rd, the NC General Assembly passed Senate Bill 20 (SB20), Good Samaritan Law/Naloxone Access, legislation aimed at reducing drug overdose fatalities in North Carolina. The final vote in the Senate was 47-0. SB20 provides limited criminal immunity from prosecution charges for less than one gram of drugs or paraphernalia to people who call 911 to report an overdose. The immunity also applies to underage drinkers who seek help for alcohol poisoning. Additionally, SB20 removes civil liabilities for medical providers who prescribe naloxone, the antidote to opioid overdose, and for bystanders who administer it to someone experiencing an overdose. The bill also allows for a standing order distribution, meaning that medical practitioners can grant permission to nurses and overdose prevention groups to dispense naloxone without a doctor present. SB20 will now go to the Governor for his signature, and once signed, will become effective immediately.

SB20 was sponsored by Senators Austin Allran (R) and Stan Bingham (R), and co-sponsored by Senators Shirley Randleman (R) and Floyd McKissick (D). “SB20 is an important step to combat the epidemic of drug overdoses in our state,” says Senator Allran, sponsor. “We have bipartisan support for this bill because everyone recognizes that it’s about saving lives and giving people a second chance to get into treatment.”

Rep. Tom Murry (R) introduced SB20 on the House floor on March 28^th, where it passed 102-11. If someone has an injury and gets legitimate treatment for pain and then they have trouble getting off that [pain medication], it might cascade into an addiction that they just can’t treat,” he says. “What this legislation [SB20] does is help folks that might be at risk for an opioid overdose to make sure that they have appropriate treatment.”

In the past decade overdose deaths have tripled, claiming over 1100 North Carolinians last year, while nationwide overdose deaths have surpassed auto fatalities as the leading cause of accidental death. If left unmitigated, drug overdose deaths could rise to become North Carolina’s primary cause of accidental death by 2017. Most overdoses are caused by prescription medications, in particular opioid pain relievers such as OxyContin, Vicodin and morphine.

“This is a great day for injury prevention in North Carolina,” says Robert Childs, Executive Director of the NC Harm Reduction Coalition, a public health nonprofit that advocated for the bill. “With overdose fatalities becoming an increasing problem in our state, SB20 is a great step towards curbing preventable deaths and saving the lives of our loved ones.”

NC Governor Signs 911 Good Sam, Naloxone Access and Alcohol Immunity Bill Into Law

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The governor signed a comprehensive overdose prevention bill yesterday. This bill provides limited immunity for people calling 911 or seeking medical help for a drug overdose, limited immunity for minors calling 911 or seeking medical assistance during alcohol posionings, allows easier distribution for the overdose reveral medication Naloxone (aka Narcan) and reduces liability to perscribers and administratiors of Naloxone. We are very excited by the passage of this bill and thank our Primary Sponsors Sen. Stan Bingham (R) and Sen. Austin Allran (R) for championing the bill.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 2013

SENATE BILL 20

RATIFIED BILL

AN ACT to Provide limited immunity from prosecution for (1) certain drug‑related offenses committed by an individual who seeks medical assistance for a person experiencing a drug‑related overdose and (2) certain drug‑related offenses committed by an individual experiencing a drug‑related overdose and in need of medical assistance; to provide immunity from civil or CRIMINAL LIABILITY FOR (1) PRACTITIONERS WHO PRESCRIBE AN OPIOID ANTAGONIST TO CERTAIN THIRD PARTIES AND (2) certain individuals who administer an opioid antagonist to a person experiencing a drug‑related overdose; AND TO PROVIDE LIMITED IMMUNITY FROM PROSECUTION FOR CERTAIN ALCOHOL-RELATED OFFENSES COMMITTED BY PERSONS UNDER THE AGE OF 21 WHO SEEK MEDICAL ASSISTANCE FOR ANOTHER PERSON.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1. Article 5 of Chapter 90 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section to read:

"§ 90‑96.2. Drug‑related overdose treatment; limited immunity.

(a) As used in this section, "drug‑related overdose" means an acute condition, including mania, hysteria, extreme physical illness, coma, or death resulting from the consumption or use of a controlled substance, or another substance with which a controlled substance was combined, and that a layperson would reasonably believe to be a drug overdose that requires medical assistance.

(b) A person acting in good faith who seeks medical assistance for an individual experiencing a drug‑related overdose shall not be prosecuted for (i) a misdemeanor violation of G.S. 90‑95(a)(3), (ii) a felony violation of G.S. 90‑95(a)(3) for possession of less than one gram of cocaine, (iii) a felony violation of G.S. 90‑95(a)(3) for possession of less than one gram of heroin, or (iv) a violation of G.S. 90‑113.22 if the evidence for prosecution under those sections was obtained as a result of the person seeking medical assistance for the drug‑related overdose.

(c) A person who experiences a drug‑related overdose and is in need of medical assistance shall not be prosecuted for (i) a misdemeanor violation of G.S. 90‑95(a)(3), (ii) a felony violation of G.S. 90‑95(a)(3) for possession of less than one gram of cocaine, (iii) a felony violation of G.S. 90‑95(a)(3) for possession of less than one gram of heroin, or (iv) a violation of G.S. 90‑113.22 if the evidence for prosecution under those sections was obtained as a result of the drug‑related overdose and need for medical assistance.

(d) Nothing in this section shall be construed to bar the admissibility of any evidence obtained in connection with the investigation and prosecution of other crimes committed by a person who otherwise qualifies for limited immunity under this section."

SECTION 2. Article 5 of Chapter 90 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section to read:

"§ 90‑106.2. Treatment of overdose with opioid antagonist; immunity.

(a) As used in this section, "opioid antagonist" means naloxone hydrochloride that is approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of a drug overdose.

(b) A practitioner acting in good faith and exercising reasonable care may directly or by standing order prescribe an opioid antagonist to (i) a person at risk of experiencing an opiate‑related overdose or (ii) a family member, friend, or other person in a position to assist a person at risk of experiencing an opiate‑related overdose. As an indicator of good faith, the practitioner, prior to prescribing an opioid under this subsection, may require receipt of a written communication that provides a factual basis for a reasonable conclusion as to either of the following:

(1) The person seeking the opioid antagonist is at risk of experiencing an opiate‑related overdose.

(2) The person other than the person who is at risk of experiencing an opiate‑related overdose, and who is seeking the opioid antagonist, is in relation to the person at risk of experiencing an opiate‑related overdose:

a. A family member, friend, or other person.

b. In the position to assist a person at risk of experiencing an opiate‑related overdose.(c) A person who receives an opioid antagonist that was prescribed pursuant to subsection (b) of this section may administer an opioid antagonist to another person if (i) the person has a good faith belief that the other person is experiencing a drug‑related overdose and (ii) the person exercises reasonable care in administering the drug to the other person. Evidence of the use of reasonable care in administering the drug shall include the receipt of basic instruction and information on how to administer the opioid antagonist.

(d) All of the following individuals are immune from any civil or criminal liability for actions authorized by this section:

(1) Any practitioner who prescribes an opioid antagonist pursuant to subsection (b) of this section.

(2) Any person who administers an opioid antagonist pursuant to subsection (c) of this section."

SECTION 3. Chapter 18B of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section to read:

"§ 18B-302.2. Medical treatment; limited immunity.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a person under the age of 21 shall not be prosecuted for a violation of G.S. 18B-302 for the possession or consumption of alcoholic beverages if law enforcement, including campus safety police, became aware of the possession or consumption of alcohol by the person solely because the person was seeking medical assistance for another individual. This section shall apply if, when seeking medical assistance on behalf of another, the person did all of the following:

(1) Acted in good faith, upon a reasonable belief that he or she was the first to call for assistance.

(2) Used his or her own name when contacting authorities.

(3) Remained with the individual needing medical assistance until help arrived."

SECTION 4. This act is effective when it becomes law.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 4^th day of April, 2013.

Get to Know the New Overdose Prevention Law in NC

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

911 Good Samaritan and Naloxone Access Law: What this means for North Carolina

Calling 911/Seeking Help: What Should You Know?

FOR OVERDOSES: As of April 9, 2013, a person who seeks medical assistance for someone experiencing a drug overdose can not be prosecuted for possession of small amounts of most drugs or for possession of drug paraphernalia if evidence for the charge was obtained as a result of that person seeking help. The victim is protected from these charges as well.

FOR ALCOHOL POISONING: As of April 9, 2013, an underage person who seeks medical assistance for some-one experiencing alcohol poisoning can not be prosecuted for possession or consumption of alcohol if evidence for the charge was obtained as a result of that person seeking help. However, the person must give their real name when seeking help and then remain with the victim until help arrives.

YOU CAN NOT BE PROSECUTED FOR:

_Misdemeanor possession of small amounts of drugs

_Possession of drug paraphernalia

_Underage possession or consumption of alcohol

Administering and Prescribing Naloxone (aka Narcan): What Should You Know?

WHAT IS NALOXONE? Naloxone (also known as Narcan) is an effective, non-addictive prescription medication that reverses opioid drug overdose. It can be given by intramuscular injection, as a nasal spray using a special adapter, or as an IV fluid.

PRESCRIBING: As of April 9, 2013, doctors and other medical providers can prescribe naloxone to people at risk for an overdose AND to family members, friends, or other persons who could administer naloxone in the case of a drug overdose.

IMMUNITY: Doctors and other providers who prescribe naloxone AND the people who administer naloxone in the case of an overdose will be immune from any civil or criminal charges as long as they act in good faith.

NC House Passes Partial Syringe Decrim and Needle Stick Prevention Bill

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Last night, championed by NC House Republicans, the NC House passed HB 850, a partial syringe decriminalization and needle stick prevention bill 111-2. The bill now moves on to the senate. To track the bill you can go to the following website: http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2013&BillID=h850&submitButton=Go