Advocacy
Health Policy Network helped support this 2024 rally for passing a harm reduction bill to legalize syringe service programs, organized by the Pennsylvania Harm Reduction Network at the State Capital in Harrisburg. Photo credit: Tiffany Atlas.
Advocating for Syringe Service Programs
- Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) Summary on the Safety & Effectiveness of Syringe Service Programs (SSPs) and (SSP One-pager Fact Sheet)
- PA Harm Reduction Network Advocacy Toolkit
- Health Policy Network Policy Memo: on Legislation to expand SSPs / HB 1245
- Should PA Legislators Support a Law to Legalize Syringe Service Programs? (6 pp)
- U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, Making the Case for Syringe Services Programs, Public Health Reports, 2020
- Supporters of SSP statewide legalization (189 as of 2023 update)
Organizational Letters of Support:
- PA Society of Addiction Medicine’s 2022 Letter (June, 2022, last session’s 2021-22 bill)
- PA Medical Societies 2021 Resolution (adopted 2021)
- Deans of PA’s Six Public Health Colleges (March 2018 to then Gov. Wolf, asking him to change the law using emergency public health powers)
- Example of an advocacy letter to legislator(s)
- And finally, there’s humor! Last Week Tonight’s with John Oliver’s Case for Harm Reduction ( YouTube: 18 minutes)