Closure of needle exchange has left a void in Orange County harm reduction efforts

Since the closure of the Orange County Needle Exchange Program (OCNEP) in January 2018, and a recent court ruling that bars OCNEP from operating for an unknown period of time, the entire weight of harm reduction in Orange County has fallen on a tiny non-profit, devoid of county or state funding, and operated by a handful of volunteers.
With no centralized location for providing harm reduction services, focus is placed on trying to reach the most vulnerable community members struggling with subst