Originally reported by WOWK 13 News – Jordan Mead Charleston has over $5 million in opioid settlement funds—and the community is speaking up about where it should go. In a recent WOWK article, reporter Jordan Mead highlights a town hall meeting organized to spark public input, and shares the voice Read more…
A new naloxone box is now open in the lobby of CAMC General Hospital, offering free access to life-saving Narcan with no questions asked. This makes it the fifth box in Charleston and one of many across West Virginia helping expand access to overdose prevention tools. 🧊 Why This Box Read more…
John Oliver discusses why overdoses in the U.S. have been on the rise and what we should, and shouldn’t, be doing to prevent them.
With homelessness increasing nationwide, John Oliver takes a look at the way we discuss the unhoused, what policy failures are making the problem worse, and how we can help.
Full Story by Danielle Dindak | WCHS TV A new West Virginia law—Senate Bill 334—and a city ordinance in Charleston are sending shockwaves through the state’s harm reduction community. As the law imposes strict requirements on syringe service programs, including one-to-one exchanges, state ID checks, and multi-service offerings, public health Read more…
EDIT: On April 19, 2021, Charleston City Council voted to criminalize needs based syringe exchange, going against CDC recommendations, despite the HIV outbreak. We are no longer distributing syringes.
When Charleston shut down its syringe access program in 2018, public health experts warned that an HIV crisis could follow. Now it’s here. In an in-depth piece from 100 Days in Appalachia, reporter Lauren Peace documents the fallout—including how SOAR WV’s grassroots harm reduction work tried to fill the gap Read more…