Mayor Adrian Fenty on Wednesday infused a privately funded needle exchange program with $300,000 in taxpayer dollars in the hope of reaching thousands of additional intravenous drug users before they are infected with HIV.

Fenty, joined by three D.C. Council members, delivered a check to Prevention Works! only a week after Congress lifted a decade-old ban on publicly financed syringe exchanges. The nonprofit supplies clean needles to about 2,000 drug users a year, while also providing substance abuse treatment and HIV testing in partnership with the District’s Department of Health.

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