Skip to main content

The timeline can be navigated with the “Scroll Left” and “Scroll Right” buttons or by dragging the pointer to a date on the timeline waveform (located at the bottom of the screen on the desktop version and on the left of the screen on mobile). To filter by a particular topic and see a smaller section of the data, make a selection on the dropdown “Filters” menu or click “Search” to do a keyword search. Hover over the abbreviated filter tags in the blue boxes to see the complete name of the filter, or click a filter to display all the data with this tag. If you want to take a deeper dive into a specific topic by viewing a narrative essay page and a curated timeline, click on “Stories.”

Read More

Jon Stuen-Parker establishes needle exchanges and organizes with the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power.

1987-1990

HR
OC
PH
RES
DRUG

By 1987, Jon Stuen-Parker, an activist and former intravenous drug user, has already handed out 50,000 syringes illegally.

He will be featured in the New York Times in 1989 after staging arrests in Boston and New York to show that public health interest outweighs ineffective "drug paraphernalia" laws that criminalize needle exchanges.

In 1990, Parker will partner with the needle exchange committee of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) to openly hand out needles in the Lower East Side, while trying to get arrested in what is the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic.