Chelsea Curtis
Special to ICT

When Sam Rivera was a kid, he’d often visit his mom as she worked as a nurse in an emergency room in New York City, his hometown.

She helped all kinds of people during her 40-year career, but Rivera took notice of some of her repeat patients who used drugs.

“I’m like, ‘Why are you gonna keep helping this guy? He doesn’t even want to help himself,’” he remembered asking his mom one day. “And she said, ‘My job is to help him until he’s ready to help himself.’”

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Rivera not only changed his tune eventually but now finds himself in a similar line of work driven by the same compassion his mother exuded when he was a child. He serves as the executive director of OnPoint NYC, a nonprofit that provides a wide range of services to people who use drugs in New York.

His work with OnPoint NYC recently earned him a spot on TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world for 2023. He was one of two Indigenous people on this year’s list, which also included “Sioux Chef” Sean Sherman.

“What came up the most for me is like pride, not for me as much as for my people,” Rivera, who is Afro-Taino, said of the recognition. “I want every Brown kid in this world to realize, if that guy can do it, I can do it easily, you know?”

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The Time 100 recognition cites his impact on the community.

“Rivera has pioneered an approach to help, rather than abandon or simply jail — as we usually do — an estimated 7 million Americans with OUD [Opiod Use Disorder],” wrote Beth Macy, author of “Dopesick,” and “Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice and the Future of America’s Overdose Crisis.”

“Despite what the racist war on drugs told us growing up — and despite archaic abstinence-only models that too many 12-step programs still push — Rivera’s approach actually works to prevent death, hasten recovery, and restore humanity.”

Harm reduction

The organization is perhaps most widely known for operating the nation’s first two overdose prevention centers, where people can use their drugs in the presence of trained staff to minimize the risk of overdose.

More than 107,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2021, the most in U.S. history, according to The Associated Press. Some studies suggest overdose prevention centers could help decrease death rates and disease transmissions.

OnPoint NYC’s centers have been utilized more than 75,000 times since opening in late 2021, according to Rivera. Of those, there were about 880 overdoses and no deaths, he said.

“That’s 75,000 times people would’ve been in the community using in public areas, maybe in parks, alleys and public bathrooms,” Rivera said. “That’s 75,000 times it happened in here instead…We took that away from the community.”

Rivera said he was first introduced to harm reduction work during the HIV movement in the 1990s, during which he volunteered to clean syringes to help reduce the risk of transmissions.

‘Dignity and respect’

Rivera said he grew up knowing he was Puerto Rican, but as he dug deeper over the years he learned more about his Taino and African roots. Those cultural values and traditions have helped shape his approach to harm reduction today, he said.

“I suggest that we go as far back as possible and do what our ancestors did for years, which is take care of each other instead of punishment,” Rivera said.

“People change because they’re loved on, people change because they’re treated with dignity and respect,” he later added. “We’re giving people a safe space to start to see themselves differently…and being able to engage with them while they’re here utilizing our services is really amazing and, as a Native, we say good medicine.”

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