Clean Needles Now (CNN) began in 1991 when Renee Edgington, Matthew Francis and small group of dedicated volunteers began providing needle exchange services to injection drug users in Los Angeles.

Today, CNN provides needle exchange and harm reduction services to drug users at sites in Hollywood, downtown Los Angeles and Pico Union. Last year CNN provided syringe exchange at nine sites each week, and served over 3,700 unduplicated clients during 11,300 encounters. CNN provided 800,000 syringes to injection drug users in Los Angeles last year.

Our primary mission is to develop and incorporate practical strategies for reducing drug-related harm, with a special focus on injection drug use, HIV and hepatitis transmission, and overdose prevention. CNN staff and volunteers work with a diverse population, providing low barrier, non-judgmental services. In addition to providing syringe exchange, we also provide safer injection supplies, risk reduction education, medical care, drug treatment referrals, and legal advocacy.

As a harm reduction agency, CNN does not make its services contingent upon abstinence from drugs. We work with substance users to meet them “where they are” on the continuum of drug use. CNN believes that by providing people who use drugs with access to the tools to become healthier, we recognize the competency of their efforts to protect themselves, their loved ones and their communities.

The Harm Reduction philosophy is central to the services CNN provides. Harm reduction is a public health approach that seeks to expand abstinence-based treatment to include the provision of health interventions to active drug users. Services are offered to those who cannot access drug treatment or who choose to continue their drug use. Harm reduction allows active drug users to reduce unnecessary risks, increase the quality of their lives and make the communities in which they live healthier.

Clean Needles Now would like to acknowledge the generous support of our funders: