CPWL 1 - Needle Exchange

CPWL 1- Needle Exchange is highlighting one of the main outreach services done by West Oakland Punks with Lunch - which is needle exchange. Instead of shaming people for addiction, providing clean needles and non-judgmental exchange reduces the risk of the spread of HIV and other harmful effects of dirty needles for intravenous drug users. Needle Exchange programs are highly controversial and illegal in many areas, even though data has shown it have positive impacts overall to the health of a community. An additional action point of needles is PWL does needle clean-up around the streets of West Oakland to further reduce harm to all in the neighborhood.