Syringe Service Programs Save Lives

Syringe Service Programs (SSPs) do more than distribute supplies, they are a frontline defense.

SSPs provide sterile syringes, safer use materials, and honest, nonjudgmental education to people who inject drugs, meeting people where they are, without shame, and offering them the tools to stay alive.

The results are undeniable. These programs cut HIV and Hepatitis C transmission rates in half not with punishment, but with compassion radical love and science.
They prevent overdose deaths by equipping people with naloxone, a life saving medication that reverses opioid overdoses, and by training them to recognize and respond in real time turning bystanders into lifesavers. Real life superheroes!

Every “overdose prevention kit” handed out is more than just a box, it’s a mother, brother, father, sister, child, a grandma or a stranger at the local super market waiting to be saved. We are equipped with a second chance tucked in our pocket. And nearly three decades of research agree:

Comprehensive SSPs are safe, effective, and cost saving. They reduce emergency room visits, disease burden, and the strain on public health systems, all while building trust, offering hope, and restoring dignity to people who’ve been ignored for too long.

SSPs don’t enable drug use. They interrupt death, they connect people to care and they open the door to healing, when and if someone is ready.

“This is what harm reduction looks like. This is what saving lives truly means”