Full Article by Caity Coyne | WV Watch
Last week, for the first time ever, the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) visited Appalachia, holding its 78th meeting in Charleston, WV. National leaders gathered to learn firsthand about West Virginia’s struggles — and the critical need for true harm reduction practices
Dr. Hansel Tookes, a Florida harm reduction leader, offered a message of hope:
“If we could do that in Florida… it can be done anywhere, and that includes West Virginia.”
Tookes successfully helped repeal syringe ban laws in Florida and warned that West Virginia’s continuing HIV crisis “doesn’t have to be this way,” but would require coalition-building and relentless advocacy centered on people who use drugs.
Despite some improvement in HIV case numbers, the reality remains stark: state and local laws still ban effective, needs-based syringe access, forcing programs like SOAR’s to shut down and limiting service options across Kanawha County.
Laura Jones, who runs the LIGHT Project in Morgantown, emphasized the scale needed:
“The only way to make harm reduction work… is to saturate a community with syringes, and unfortunately no one wants to hear that, but it is the truth.”
At a mutual aid health fair hosted by SOAR, community members described how barriers to syringe access are leading to dangerous levels of needle sharing.
Cassie Province, a case manager at Covenant House, explained the local legal hurdles to the PACHA council:
“We’re losing people every day, not just to HIV but to other drug related diseases too because we can’t get clean needles”
Participants shared powerful, painful stories:
- Daniel Quarequio, a former injector who survived four overdoses, stressed the need to lower barriers for people who use drugs.
- An unnamed participant said bluntly:
“Everyone is sharing needles, that’s just the way it is now.”
Standing among them, Dr. Tookes reflected:
“This really is amazing — I want to do this in Miami because this is incredible, having all these people, all these services in one place.”
Tookes closed with a direct challenge to West Virginia leaders:
“Come see what we do in Florida. See what could happen if they just follow the science of what we know works.”
