By David Cruz

Staying helplessly fixated on heroin often comes with an urge to ignore the drug’s risks that transcend addiction. Using with impunity can often make one

look the other way, disregarding that tinge of an STD lingering on the tip of a commune needle.

Jerome Sanchez sees the risks, and has stepped in to help, though he prefers not to call it that. Call him a guide.

“They keep themselves alive for another day,” said Sanchez. “That’s a success.” 

Indeed, Sanchez, a peer leader, serves in the name of healthcare. It’s a mission shared by the group, New York Harm Reduction Educators (NYHRE), a 23-year nonprofit based in the South Bronx. Since 1992 the group has fanned across the Bronx and Harlem, teaching hundreds of clients how to use heroin safely to help contain the spread of STDs. Sanchez serves as a peer leader.

Its signature service remains a syringe exchange program (SEP), trading used needles that could unknowingly carry an STD for a sterilized one. It’s helped decrease the spread of Hepatitis C and HIV, conditions that became so common during the raging days of heroin it begged a city response. Syringe use, as it’s been the care for years, is the most common way of contracting Hepatitis C. It’s mostly found in neighborhood of poverty, a recipe for disaster since heroin use is commonly found in poor neighborhoods.

Declines in HIV and Hepatitis C have been largely due to syringe exchanges, an upside for New York City since it holds the most injection drug users in the country. It’s an unfortunate downside for a city currently experiencing its second heroin epidemic.

NYHRE’s philosophy is arguably libertarian, and on the surface, an underhanded way of encouraging drug use. But Michael Selick, the group’s chief policymaker, views the judgment-free service as the worm to spark the conversation on staying healthy and hopefully achieve sobriety.

“You’re only gonna get a few minutes in,” said Selick, who advises peer leaders to dole out anti-drug pamphlets during each encounter. “A least you have something you can sit down and read later.”

For each visit, various pamphlets are often distributed, complete with tips that read, “Clean your skin with soapy water and alcohol before you inject,” and “If you don’t have new, sterile syringes or if you bought them off the street, rinse them with water first.” Another pamphlet recommends addicts utilize one cooker—usually a spoon or bottle cap–since Hepatitis C can “live on a cooker for days.”

Responding To A Crisis
The group carries the tradition of AIDS Coalition to Unless Power (ACT Up), a grassroots group where needle exchange was still underground. The group convinced the courts to legalize syringe exchange, seeing a public health benefit. New York Harm Reduction Educators soon became a nonprofit, funded and recognized by the New York City Health Department as a licensed operation.

On scheduled days, harm reduction educators canvas around the Bronx, specifically high minority neighborhoods such as Fordham, Tremont and Hunts Point, an epicenter for heroin use. Services range from a mobile office that parks in those neighborhoods from Tuesday through Saturday, with users already lining up prior to its opening. Heroin users can benefit from holistic services at the van, which include acupuncture, Reiki and Tai Chi.

Other times, peer leaders hit the streets, going directly to clients who made need it the most. Terrell Jones, a hulking peer leader for NYHRE, is commonly entrenched in Hunts Point, backpacking with supplies ranging from clean needles, pamphlets and whistles.

“[We give] them syringes to talk about safe injection, rotating the vein, not using the same site, make sure they’re wiping before you inject,” said Jones.

Police Confrontations
Though laws are in place for syringe exchange due largely to a revised 2010 criminal penal code—Chapter 284, sections 220.45 and 220.03–that decriminalized needle possession, there are some occupational hazards. Those largely include run-ins with police. In some cases, an encounter might lead to an arrest, an indication of just how sensitive the work can be.

“You may have some police officers that can’t legally charge you with syringes,” said Terrell, who’s seen confrontations take place. “But they’re gonna find something else to charge you with like disorderly conduct.”

The issue is somewhat dichotomous—police departments have been trained to assist users, particularly in its use of Narcan, which reverses overdoses, though it effects arrests on users in some cases. For this, addicts can steer clear from peer leaders.

They also refuse to call the police since many believe the so-called Good Samaritan laws, offering immunity to users who have called 911, are ignored.

“It’s an easy bust for [the police],” said Terrell.

Debra Vizzi, the executive director of VIP Services, a drug rehab clinic in Tremont that sees thousands of heroin addicts, agreed.

“In this culture, we don’t have positive relationships with police,” said Vizzi. “So you overdose, I’m not calling a cop. I’m running.”

The level of legal drama is raised during court proceedings, where the burden of proof is placed on the offender as it must prove it received a syringe from an SEP or a pharmacy. The long term goal is to eliminate the penal code 220.45 and 220.03 indefinitely.

“The charges can’t exist if they can’t write the number,” said Selick.

For now, peer leaders are exercising caution.

Editor’s Note: For more information on New York Harm Reducation Educators, call 718-842-6050.

admin

Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.