When Shoshanna Scholar first stopped into a syringe exchange, 'it blew my mind,' she said. It was loud and fun, she said, a place where people were not only getting clean syringes to avoid HIV and hepatitis, but were also making art and teaching one another. “It was super clear that people who use drugs were shaping this beautiful space” where they were treated with compassion, Scholar said.
Here's what that looks like: Case managers assisting people who have been in trouble for minor crimes involving drugs or sex work. Naloxone, the medicine that can reverse an opioid overdose, being provided in L.A. County jails and handed out freely on the streets. When Scholar proposed getting naloxone into jails, “I thought, ‘I don’t know how you’re going to sell this to law enforcement,’” said Peter Espinoza, who was director of the L.A.