Church opens door to syringe exchange

Sarah Howell-Miller, a United Methodist minister, was once opposed to needle exchange programs for opioid addicts—a stance shared by legislators in some three dozen states. The idea of giving addicts the means to shoot up was, in Howell-Miller’s word, “garbage.”

Then she fell in love with a drug user.

Howell-Miller’s husband, Colin Miller, began using heroin when he was 18 and first went to a syringe exchange when he was homeless and living on the streets of Minneapolis. He said the clinic taught him how to shoot up safely, and when he first wanted to go into detox, the exchange was the first place he turned to.