In 2023, Morgan Bryant went to her first syringe exchange.
Back then, the 44-year-old eastsider was still using meth and heroin. She wanted to stop sharing needles and get treatment for hepatitis C, a virus spread through blood that causes liver damage. And if she got sober, she could safely watch her 2-year-old granddaughter.
“You’re always on the run. Chasing after that high, that bag, that dealer,” Bryant said. “I was looking for a way out.”
She found one at the Damien Center, Indy’s oldest AIDS service organization. Each week, Bryant exchanged her used needles for clean supplies and boxes of naloxone, a life-saving medication that can reverse an opioid overdose. Staff helped treat her wounds from injecting, too.
Lawmakers are re-evaluating syringe exchanges like this one, which operate in six counties across Indiana. The programs were legalized in 2015 after a major HIV outbreak in Scott County in southern Indiana from drug injections. At the same time, health officials faced another opioid epidemic with the rise of fentanyl.
“People are going to use drugs no matter what,” said Carrie O’Brien, the director of the syringe program at Damien Center. “All we can do is be here and ensure they’re doing that in the safest way possible until they’re ready to make a positive change.”
Bryant started with prescription pain pills. After she was injured by a car, doctors didn’t expect a full recovery from a broken back and pelvis.
“They didn’t think I would ever walk again,” Bryant said. “I was going to do it for my kids.”
After several years, she was back on her feet. But withdrawal from the medications hit like a train. That’s when she started using heroin: “I found something to make me feel better.”
At first, the syringe exchange was just a place for clean supplies. Eventually, she said, staff connected her to a 28-day program and a recovery house.
Now, Bryant is almost two years sober. She still goes to the Damien Center for naloxone, stocking it in her purse and glovebox. Most afternoons are spent baking cookies and watching “KPop Demon Hunters” with her grandchildren.
“When you’re using, you’re basically dead,” Bryant said. “I made it out of the graveyard.”
But the program that saved her may soon shutter — unless Indiana lawmakers pass a bill to extend the syringe exchanges.
Infections fall in Indianapolis
In Indianapolis, nearly 6,000 people used a syringe exchange in the past two years. The programs are free and anonymous, though sites track how many people show up each day. Syringes cannot be purchased with taxpayer dollars in Indiana, so exchanges rely on donations and private funding.
In 2018, Marion County declared a public health emergency as hepatitis C cases skyrocketed from injection drug use. The next year, the city launched syringe exchange sites to curb the spread of infections.
Data provided by the Marion County Public Health Department shows the results: hepatitis C cases fell by about 60% after five years of the program. New HIV infections from injection drug use dropped, too.
Meanwhile, more than 47,000 doses of naloxone were given out between 2024 and 2025 — and participants reported using the medication to reverse about 1,700 overdoses.
Sen. Michael Crider keeps these statistics close to heart. The Republican from Greenfield filed Senate Bill 91, which would keep syringe exchanges going across Indiana for the next decade. If it does not pass, the programs must shut down in July 2026.
“We are treating addiction not as a moral failure, but a health problem,” Crider told Mirror Indy. “You get a window of opportunity to help people. This is one tool I want to see available.”
But he’s running up against opposition within his own party. Last summer, the Trump administration restricted federal funding for harm reduction programs, which include needle exchanges. In an executive order, the president said the public health approach “facilitates illegal drug use.”
In a Senate Committee on Health and Provider Services meeting Jan. 7, some Indiana Republicans questioned whether the syringe exchanges are an effective way to get people into treatment.
They also heard testimony from the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council, who opposed extending the program on behalf of the state’s prosecutors.
Some syringe exchanges are causing a “proliferation of needles” and facilitating drug use, said Chris Daniels, IPAC’s senior traffic safety resource prosecutor. When pressed by lawmakers, Daniels could not provide data but said he is hearing concerns from law enforcement across the state.
Sen. La Keisha Jackson, a Democrat representing Indy’s east side, said stigma keeps people from recognizing the public health benefits of the exchanges. She is a co-author on Crider’s bill. Democrats generally support the legislation.
“We’re not encouraging the syringe program to continue drug use,” Jackson told Mirror Indy. “It’s effective at reducing injections and assisting people in recovery.”
SB 91 passed out of committee and is being considered by the full Senate. The fate of the bill, though, is in question. One amendment from Sen. Aaron Freeman, an Indianapolis Republican, would limit who could use the exchanges by requiring people to bring IDs and prove their residency.
Crider said this change would hurt the bill. “If somebody realizes they need help and this is a step, it should be available no matter where they live,” he told Mirror Indy.
‘End the war on people who use drugs’
Inside the basement of the Damien Center, a bulletin board is decorated with stickers. “End the war on people who use drugs,” one reads.
Coloring book pages hang on the next wall, filled in by people waiting for the syringe exchange. At the counter, a glass frame showcases the different sizes of needles available.
Around 5 p.m. on Jan. 13, a few people trickled in during the program’s last hour. An older woman brought her backpack and unzipped it, ready to collect new supplies.
“Do you need any Narcan?” a staff member asked her.
The woman nodded and asked for two doses. Recently, she had to use the medication on a stranger.
“I don’t know if they made it or not,” she told the staff. “I want everything.”
Before walking out into the winter cold, the woman scheduled an appointment to get treated for hepatitis C. Her sores, she said, weren’t healing on their own anymore.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Mirror Indy reporter Mary Claire Molloy covers health. Reach her at 317-721-7648 or email maryclaire.molloy@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @mcmolloy7.
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