Community syringe disposal program keeps residents safe

Antonia Sawyer, founder of ShipHappens and the Prevent Pricks campaign, is hoping to expand access to syringe service programs through her work. “Prevent Pricks is truly a building block to services like syringe service programs, through the acknowledgment that there is syringe use in communities, and that everyone needs access to safe and convenient disposal to protect the public health of all residents,” she says. To date, the project has seen two syringe disposal boxes installed in Miami County and a total of 230 pounds of syringes collected between the two.

Sawyer is someone whose loved ones have faced SUD and Hepatitis C (HCV). The sharing of syringes by people who inject drugs has led Indiana to have the nation’s highest rate of HCV infections at 4.8 per 100,000 population according to the CDC. “I always knew my professional career would be dedicated to reducing stigma,” says Sawyer. According to her, a major cause of improper disposal is the stigmatization of syringe use, and Prevent Pricks was created from her belief that providing an accessible, safe place to drop used syringes would help eliminate some of that stigma. “By being inclusive of all residents, stigma around syringes and people who use drugs diminishes and communities can see the success of syringe programming.”

Prevent Pricks is a continuation of Sawyer’s work with her nonprofit, ShipHappens, a zero-barrier point of access to naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal medicine. The Center for Rural Engagement has partnered with ShipHappens previously to deliver over 500 naloxone kits to residents in eight Indiana counties, and now alongside START has helped develop and implement a toolkit for communities wanting to set up a safe syringe disposal site.

Two student START volunteers worked with Sawyer to develop a toolkit for community leaders to arrange for a syringe dropbox in their area. The toolkit takes the form of an 18-page digital document and includes resources and information for every step of the way including assessing community need, picking a location for the box, and forming press releases once a box has been established. “This is a tailorable program, and we encourage all communities to do what is best to meet their needs while maintaining the integrity of the program by keeping it zero-barrier, in an accessible yet semi-private location, and embedding it into the community so it remains sustainable over time,” says Sawyer. Those interested in the toolkit, donating, or volunteering can contact Sawyer through email or the ShipHappens Facebook page.

Paola Gabriela Zaragoza Cardenales is an SJD candidate at the IU Maurer School of Law and one of the students that worked with START and Sawyer to put together the toolkit. “It was a really nice experience because it’s an initiative to address a concern that not many people might understand,” says Zaragoza Cardenales. “It’s one of those things that can pass under the radar if you aren’t used to it.”

Zaragoza Cardenales says the project serves parts of communities that might be stigmatized for syringe use beyond people who inject drugs like diabetics or even herself, someone who self-administers allergy medications by syringe. “Having something like that, that’s accessible to everyone, that’s a big deal for me.”

Cassi Winslow-Edmonson, director of IU Corps, which heads START, says that taking Prevent Pricks on as a project was something she was happy to do. “Sawyer is an amazing individual, a human being who just really wants to make a positive impact in the world, always thinking creatively,” she says. Sawyer’s needs made an excellent fit for START’s goals of providing student volunteers with opportunities that engage their critical thinking and leave them as engaged citizens, says Winslow-Edmonson. “Students want a mentor, a person who really is passionate and will invest in them, who can hold them accountable, who will challenge them, and Antonia Sawyer is that.”

The opioid crisis continues to impact families across the country, but with the help of people like Sawyer, initiatives like Prevent Pricks, and partnerships with organizations like IU Corps and the Center for Rural Engagement, Indiana is changing the course of the crisis and the conversation around it.

“I hope to implement Prevent Pricks across the state in as many counties as want to implement it,” says Sawyer. “As for the future of public response, I hope to see more communities coming together around the challenges of SUD and looking outside the box for impactful solutions. It is important to find the common intersect across all members of the community and leverage that to create change.”