Clean Needles Now
Description
Clean Needles Now (CNN)'s mission is to support the human rights of drug users and their communities, especially the right to protect their own health. CNN serves a highly marginalized population of Injection Drug Users with dignity and respect and provides them with user-driven, low-threshold direct services, outreach and advocacy. Our commitment to having former and current users on staff ensures that the user’s perspective is always a prime consideration.
CNN has provided needle exchange and has served the health and wellness needs of Injection Drug Users (IDUs) in Los Angeles since 1991. CNN’s harm reduction program was founded by a small group of dedicated AIDS ACT UP Activists and Artists who, through their acts of civil disobedience, demanded and implemented these vital the first syringe exchange services in Los Angeles. Since then the founders of CNN and their followers have operated high-volume, uninterrupted syringe exchange service. CNN’s strength lies in its ability to provide exchange, prevention education, overdose prevention and harm reduction services for IDUs across a wide range of settings. CNN provides needle exchange in four very different parts of Los Angeles; Skid Row/ Downtown, Hollywood, Pico-Union and Watts in South Los Angeles.
Clean Needles Now is a leading organization in the field of harm reduction. CNN has worked with the LA City AIDS Coordinator and the Los Angeles Police Department to establish officer training curriculum around needle exchange and IDU public health. CNN founded the Los Angeles Overdose Taskforce, which organized service providers across Los Angeles County and lead to a radical change at the LA County Department of Public Health toward IDUs and helped set the stage for overdose legislation at the State level. CNN regularly provides training and expertise to USC Medical School, Cal State, state, national and international policy making bodies.
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