When asked by a listener in a radio interview with New Hampshire Public Radio how Gabbard felt about needle exchange programs and safe consumption spaces, Gabbard answered, “I think that these programs, and I’ve heard a lot about kind of the Hub and Spoke program here in New Hampshire that are being implemented at the local level, do so much towards helping people find that safe space to begin that tough path towards recovery, towards ending that addiction. I want to bring up one thing that I think the state legislature here [New Hampshire] has passed, I think through the House [of Representatives], and that that is marijuana. I’ve introduced legislation at the federal level to end the federal marijuana prohibition for a whole host of reasons, but one of which is how we’ve seen a direct correlation in states that have either passed medical marijuana or completely decriminalized marijuana. We’ve seen that correlation in a drop in opioid addiction and also a correlating drop in opioid related deaths. So I think there’s a number of different avenues that we need to pursue to address this opioid crisis. Not a single one of them alone will be effective in doing so, but we have to treat it like the crisis that it is both in accountability and prosecution for those responsible for proliferating these drugs, and recovery and treatment and help for those who are suffering at the brunt of this crisis.” NHPR host Peter Biello followed up by asking for a clear yes or no on whether needle exchanges are a “good idea.” Gabbard responded, “Yes.”

In order to “Ensure Access to Health Care and Interventions that Promote Long-Term Recovery, …” Beto supports, “Creating needle exchanges and supervised consumption sites where people can consume drugs they have obtained elsewhere in a controlled setting, under the supervision of trained staff, and with access to sterile injecting equipment.”
Beto’s Plan to Address Substance Use Disorders and the Opioid Epidemic
Medium, October 24, 2019 | Beto O’Rourke

Beto will also, “Implement innovative models for health care and interventions related to substance use disorder such as that used in Portugal, particularly mobile vans that travel to areas of high consumption to distribute medicines or needle exchanges, where individuals caught with drugs are sent to treatment instead of jail.”

Beto’s Plan to Address Substance Use Disorders and the Opioid Epidemic
Medium, October 24, 2019 | Beto O’Rourke

“I’ll support evidence-based safe injection sites and needle exchanges, and expand the availability of buprenorphine to prevent overdoses.”
Ending private prisons and exploitation for profit
Medium, June 21, 2019 | Elizabeth Warren

“The disastrous policies that make up the War on Drugs have not reduced drug use and violent crime. We must use effective therapeutic, not punitive, solutions to address drug addiction.”

“Yes, I believe that we should invest in needle exchange programs that have shown themselves to be effective. Again, I think that that needs to be part of an overall strategy to help people get onto the path and life that they want. I don’t think any one piece is the answer just in and of itself, that it needs to be part of the strategy to get people the help that they need. Along with that strategy and those resource investments, then yes, I absolutely would [support lifting the federal funding ban on syringes], because I think we have enough evidence out there that needle exchange programs have worked. And I look at this through the perspective of how can we make sure that somebody is able to get the immediate help that they need to avoid worse outcomes? HIV or something else on top of right what they’re already dealing with and we have evidence that these work. So yes, I would [support lifting the federal funding ban on syringes].”

Julian Castro – IHRC 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Forum on the Overdose Crisis – Event 2
November 23, 2019

“Among the key steps to addressing this joint epidemic are: community based substance use prevention programs that address the social and community determinants of SUD, appropriate monitoring of prescribing practices of clinicians, employing a full range of harm reduction services, including removing restrictions on the use of federal funds for syringe services programs, broad availability of naloxone for overdose reversal — including distribution to users through syringe services programs and community availability on the same level as Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs), access to comprehensive health care services from SUD disorder treatment that includes MAT and treatment for hepatitis C by assuring broader adoption of Medicaid expansion and through existing networks of safety-net providers, and a recognition that we also need to more broadly invest in social support services that should surround MAT, akin to the services available for people living with HIV under the Ryan White program.”

“To expand harm reduction services we will remove legislative and regulatory restrictions on the use of federal funds for syringe service programs. Under current law, local authorities have to jump through too many hoops to use federal dollars for operation of SSPs and may not use these funds for the purchase of syringes. These restrictions hamper state and local responses, both because they limit resources and because they convey a negative message about the value of these programs, despite overwhelming scientific evidence that they can prevent transmission of HIV and hepatitis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would also work with states to remove any criminal liability for those participating in SSPs.”

“As Mayor of Newark, I fought for and helped open the city’s first needle-exchange center and saw firsthand how effective they could be.”
Cory Booker Explains His HIV Policy Ideas
HIV+Magazine, September 9, 2019 | Jacob Anderson-Minshall