The needle exchange program in Santa Ana was recently gutted by the city (LA Times 2018). “Public welfare” was undermined according to city officials who made the ruling in February. The purpose of needle exchange programs is to prevent HIV transmission. State hindrance of these programs and HIV prevention research has helped produce HIV vulnerability especially in racialized spaces (Singer). Medical anthropologists have been key to unveiling the links between the war on drugs and the crises of HIV. In some states, HIV research is very limited due to the use of drug paraphernalia. The policing of the issues instead of prevention has made programs such as the needle exchange program vulnerable. "State-sanctioned" violence that the geographer Ruth Gilmore use to show how state action is complicit in the problem- yet absolved from taking any accountability. Recently a mobile HIV needle exchange program has started across OC cities.
The clean oranged container full of needles- shows the disappearance of support /infrastructure for HIV vulnerable bodies. The color-scape of white and orange gives the image a laboratory- office undertone. The official charisma of the picture invokes the state and bureaucracy.
