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Virginia coalition sends secure drug shipments to North Carolina

As residents of Southwest Virginia, Western North Carolina and Tennessee continue to grapple with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the Virginia Harm Reduction Coalition is doing everything we can to provide survival supplies and safer drug use kits to those in need.

“When people think about harm reduction, they only think about drug use. But harm reduction is really community care,” Danny Clawson, executive director of the Roanoke-based coalition, said Friday. “During disasters and crises, it is the mitigation authorities who are best placed to respond on the ground to whatever is going on, because we are already working in a situation with limited resources.”







Danny Clawson, executive director of the Virginia Harm Reduction Coalition, collects supplies for victims of Hurricane Helene.


HEATHER ROUSSEAU, The Roanoke Times


First- and second-year students at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine helped pack a U-Haul at the coalition's southwest Roanoke office Friday with supplies, from diapers to respirators to clean needles.

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“We run a volunteer program with them,” Clawson said. “They usually come and help us pack safer use kits and hygiene supplies that we distribute daily here in Roanoke City and the West Piedmont Health District.”

Over the weekend, Clawson said he would deliver the items to sister organizations, including the Holler and Smoky Mountain harm reduction coalitions in Marshall and Burnsville, North Carolina. The trip will be Clawson's second trip to the area since Hurricane Helene. On Monday, September 30, they brought supplies to Franklin and Waynesville.







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The Virginia Harm Reduction Coalition in Roanoke is collecting supplies for Hurricane Helene victims with Virginia Tech medical student volunteers.


HEATHER ROUSSEAU, The Roanoke Times


“We don’t plan on getting in each other’s way down there,” Clawson said. “It's really about dropping off the supplies, getting them the resources they need and then getting back out there so we don't clog up the roads and the few places to sleep that there are right now.”

Clawson said mitigation will always be a mutual aid project that goes into overdrive when federal agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency are stretched to their limits.

“There are people traveling with pack mules, people with off-road dirt bikes, people hiking with backpacks to bring supplies into these more remote areas. It's not about the will or commitment to these isolated areas. It’s about access,” he said. “These types of efforts that we're doing are taking care of the outdoor areas because FEMA couldn't get there if they wanted to.”

Supplies arrive in North Carolina by plane and mule as the death toll at Helene exceeds 130

Clawson said the Virginia coalition will provide its sister organizations with safer drug use kits to prevent the transmission of HIV and hepatitis C, as well as infections such as endocarditis.

“Infection is the last thing people need now in such a crisis,” they said. “We also take Narcan to protect people from overdose. People don't stop using drugs just because there's a crisis. It's a chemical dependency. You have no choice. They will become terminally ill and could die if they don't use it. We cannot stop our services just because there is a crisis.”







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The Virginia Harm Reduction Coalition is collecting supplies for Hurricane Helene victims with Virginia Tech medical student volunteers. From left: Bryan Kim, Aran Chang and Teddy Huang.


HEATHER ROUSSEAU, The Roanoke Times


The coalition also delivers tents and stoves to members of the homeless community in Western North Carolina.

“I just spoke to someone from Asheville this morning,” Clawson said. “Unhoused people living in Asheville were only allowed to bring a backpack into the shelters. Everything they had in their setup like their tent, tarps, everything they had to survive on the streets is now gone, so we have to replace them so they can start again.”

Clawson said the Virginia coalition sources supplies from national and local partners. But the needs of people in Western North Carolina continue to change.

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“The situation down there is incredibly dynamic,” they said. “First it was about water and food, and so everyone brought water and food. Now it’s about personal protective equipment.”

Clawson said residents and authorities are encountering toxic water during cleanup and reconstruction efforts.

“There are a lot of spilled chemicals and sewage in the water as well as deceased animals and unfortunately also deceased people,” the spokesman said. “The people down there are incredibly resilient. They do everything they can to take care of each other, and we just give them the tools they need to help themselves.”

The search for the missing perpetrators stalls at every turn as Helene's death toll exceeds 200

As those needs change, Clawson said the Virginia coalition remains “flexible.”

“So far we have raised over $5,000, which we will use to purchase newly identified supplies on the way down so we can meet the needs of communities in real time,” they said.

The coalition plans to send more relief supplies to affected communities next week. If you would like to support the organization's efforts, you can make a monetary donation at Carrynoloxone.org/give. You can also purchase items at the Roanoke office, 350 Albemarle Ave. SW, hand in

Emma Coleman (540) 981-3198

[email protected]

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