A thousand points ... needle exchange around the country

Needle exchange in the United States is a part of the AIDS direct action movement. Activists around the country, refusing to wait for health officials to create AIDS interventions for drug users, have taken the task upon themselves. Prevention Point in San Francisco, the National AIDS Brigade in Boston, and ACT UP/New York all run illegal programs in their locales, and member of all three groups have been arrested for their work. Tacoma, Seattle, and New Haven now have authorized programs, but only after Dave Purchase in Tacoma, ACT UP Seattle, and the National AIDS Brigade and ACES in New Haven demonstrated that needle exchange was a viable and necessary public health intervention. Health/PAC here presents some of the stories from this citizen's health action movement.