Fresno Needle Exchange

Reporter Rachel Cassandra takes us to Fresno where she meets a Dr. Marc Lasher who works at a mobile needle exchange. The doctor sees patients for drug-related medical complications, mostly abscesses that occur when intravenous drug users inject drugs cut with impurities. But instead of a doctor’s office, Dr. Lasher sees patients in the 1960’s era bus.

We go inside the bus with him while he treats a woman for an abscess on her shin. He slices and drains the abscess to relieve pressure and pain. At the needle exchange, patients who are drug users can receive care with respect—something unfortunately hard to come by when doctors know you are a drug addict.