The doctor behind harm reduction in Florida

Prior to 2016, state-sanctioned harm reduction strategies – which aim to decrease negative effects of addiction – were nonexistent in Florida. Then, a Miami medical student launched a multi-year campaign to convince the legislature to save lives through a needle exchange program. Dr. Hansel Tookes, now the clinical director of the first syringe services program in the state, sits down with Dean Henri Ford to share his journey from giving food to the local unhoused community to shifting the entire state’s approach to harm reduction and HIV prevention.