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Access to Sterile Syringes for Injecting Drug Users in New York City: Politics and Perception (1984–2010)

In the United States, political and social environments have shaped public health response to injecting drug use, and New York City represents a salient example. The history of “harm reduction” in New York City is characterized within changing historical periods and in relation to the actions of stakeholders. The expansion is traced over four periods: (i) 1984–1989: emergence, activism, and science; (ii) 1990–1994 reckoning: syringe exchange legislation and consolidation; (iii) 1995–1999: bureaucratization, opposition, and challenges to institutional control; and (iv) 2000–2010 revitalization: expansion of syringe access and harm reduction. It is clear from this review that the leadership of activism and the work of advocates catalyzed syringe access policy and practice. Without this “push,” it is unlikely that New York City would have experienced the dramatic decline in HIV infection among drug injectors in the 1990s. Second, successful arguments for expanding syringe access in New York City were based on the high HIV/AIDS infection rates. Thus, program developments were advocated as HIV prevention interventions, rather than as expanded services for addressing broader health and social issues of injecting drug use.