Editor's Note: The photography credits have been corrected to Calvin Megginson.
WILMINGTON, N.C. — Until the opioid epidemic began seeping into nearly every city and town in the country, the idea of a Main Street storefront offering free needles, alcohol wipes and small metal cookers for heroin users was unthinkable in a conservative Southern city like this one.
But these days, most of the roughly 100,000 residents of this historic port on the Cape Fear River are painfully aware that their community has a serious drug problem. Syringes carpet sections of public walkways, drug users congregate in vacant lots, and an increasing number of residents are attending the funerals of friends and family members who have died of an opioid overdose.
As a result, many police officers here fully support syringe exchanges, places where drug users can go to dispose of used needles, pick up fresh ones, get health exams, and maybe find out about treatment options. They say they’re willing to overlook the fact that possessing drug paraphernalia, including syringes, is an arrestable offense.
[For more on this story by Christine Vestal, go to http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/re...-to-needle-exchanges]
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