Indiana’s needle exchange programs are on the chopping block

INDIANAPOLIS (MIRROR INDY) — In 2023, Morgan Bryant went to her first syringe exchange.

Back then, the 44-year-old eastsider was still using meth and heroin. She wanted to stop sharing needles and get treatment for hepatitis C, a virus spread through blood that causes liver damage. And if she got sober, she could safely watch her 2-year-old granddaughter.

“You’re always on the run. Chasing after that high, that bag, that dealer,” Bryant said. “I was looking for a way out.”

She found one at the Damien Center, Indy’s oldest AIDS service organization. Each week, Bryant exchanged her used needles for clean supplies and boxes of naloxone, a life-saving medication that can reverse an opioid overdose. Staff helped treat her wounds from injecting, too.

Lawmakers are re-evaluating syringe exchanges like this one, which operate in six counties across Indiana. The programs were legaliz...