Against the Odds
With the FMA's support, four determined medical students got a
needle-exchange bill near the finish line – and their work isn't done.
By Erika D. Peterman
During his public health research, University of Miami
Miller College of Medicine student Hansel Tookes had
seen countless discarded dirty needles and syringes on
Miami's streets – silent evidence of the city's thousands
of injection-drug users. But perhaps the most jarring
moment was when he almost stepped on a needle that
was covered in blood and sitting straight up.
Miles away in Florida's capital, Tookes and his fellow
FMA Medical Student Section (MSS) members, Chanelle
Diaz, Dyani Loo and Marek Hirsch, were fighting for
legislation to prevent people from becoming victims of
such incidents. During the 2013 Florida legislative
session, the four were the biggest advocates for SB 808,
an FMA-supported bill that sought to establish a pilot
program in Miami-Dade County allowing injection-drug
users to exchange dirty needles and syringes for clean
ones. Though the bill didn't pass the Legislature, its
progress to the Senate floor is a remarkable case study
that shows the power of getting involved.
'Without the FMA, there's no way we
would have gone as far as we did.'
Early on, a legislative aide told Tookes that SB 808 wouldn't survive its first committee stop in the
House.
"Starting out, we never knew how far it would get," said Tookes, a fourth-year student whose research
inspired the legislation. "Coming up and seeing that our research and our advocacy could actually
effect change on a statewide level or, in this case, the city of Miami, was an amazing feeling."
The movement to create a needle-exchange program is far from over. With some political wind at their
backs, advocates for SB 808 are already preparing to revive the measure and get it passed next year.
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