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The doctor behind harm reduction in Florida

With guest Hansel Tookes, III, M.D., M.P.H.
Dr Tookes and Dean Ford
Dr. Hansel Tookes and Dean Henri Ford

March 22, 2023 

GuestHansel Tookes, III, M.D., M.P.H.
Listen Time: 31m 49s

Prior to 2016, state-sanctioned harm reduction strategies – which aim to decrease negative effects of addiction – were nonexistent in Florida. Then, a Miami medical student launched a multi-year campaign to convince the legislature to save lives through a needle exchange program. Dr. Hansel Tookes, now the clinical director of the first syringe services program in the state, sits down with Dean Henri Ford to share his journey from giving food to the local unhoused community to shifting the entire state’s approach to harm reduction and HIV prevention.Listen on Apple Listen on iHeart Listen on Spotify


Hansel Tookes, III, M.D., M.P.H.

Hansel Tookes, M.D., M.P.H.

Professor of Medicine, Infectious Diseases

Biography: Hansel Tookes is a tenured Professor of Medicine at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He is founder of the IDEA Lab whose mission is to implement, disseminate, educate, and advocate for the health of people who use drugs. His lab also houses the IDEA syringe services program – the first legal program in Florida. Dr. Tookes spent five years advocating in the...
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