Harm Reduction Research Project Instructions

Project Overview:

Advancing Harm Reduction through the Law (AHRLA) is seeking to identify municipal ordinances that may violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). 

In 2025, AHRLA participated in a legal challenge to an ordinance that prevented the use of syringe service programs (“SSPs”) in the State of Washington. SSPs are community-based prevention programs that provide sterile syringes and safe disposal of used injection equipment, along with other harm reduction services. These programs increase access to harm reduction and other health services for people who use or inject drugs, helping reduce the transmission of infectious diseases and prevent overdose deaths.

The ordinance at issue in the litigation restricted Gather Church’s SSP by prohibiting the operation of mobile units, barring SSPs from operating in residential areas, and requiring SSPs to remain at least 750 feet from any public park, school, or library. The court found that the ordinance likely violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and enjoined the county from enforcing the ordinance while the litigation was pending. Lewis County repealed the ordinance as a part of a settlement agreement in February of 2026. 

AHRLA is seeking to identify similar ordinances that may violate the ADA to leverage its legal victory to expand access to harm reduction services. 

Such ordinances fall into three categories: 1) ordinances that outright ban harm reduction services, including syringe service programs; 2) ordinances that substantially interfere with harm reduction services without specifically naming harm reduction services; and 3) ordinances that are written so broadly that they do not touch on harm reduction services but may still restrict harm reduction services.

Examples of ordinances that may run afoul of Gather Church include include those that:

  1. Prohibit or significantly restrict mobile SSP operations; 

  2. Impose distance or buffer-zone requirements that limit where SSPs may operate;

  3. Require multiple permits to provide health services or food distribution; 

  4. Are clearly directed at or designed to affect a single organization;

  5. Prohibit the distribution of drug-testing materials;

  6. Limit hours of operation to such a degree that services become effectively inaccessible; or 

  7. Require participants to travel unreasonable distances to access a fixed-site SSP.

Additionally, ordinances that broadly prohibit mobile and other health services in certain areas, or ban the distribution of syringes within a specified radius, may raise concerns under Gather Church if  those restrictions apply only to SSPs but not to pharmacies, clinics, or other healthcare providers. 

Instructions for Participating Attorneys:

  • Attend the Training

    • AHRLA and L4GG will walk you through the context and importance of this research, explain how to search for municipal ordinances, and show you how to submit your research on September 1, 2026 at 4pm ET. 

    • The recording can be accessed here.

  • Read “Advancing Harm Reduction Services in the United States: The Untapped Role of the Americans with Disabilities Act,” a law review article on this topic published in the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics in 2022.

  • Read the order granting the motion for preliminary injunction in Gather Church v. Lewis County

  • Review the Research Questions

    • Before accessing the form, we recommend that you review the research questions at the bottom of this document.

  • Conduct Your Research

    • Review the “Tools” section of this document for additional background materials that you can use to guide your search.

    • Keywords to help identify the ordinances include:

      1. “Access to health services” 

      2. “Access to social services in the park” 

      3. “Provision of health supplies” 

      4. “Drug paraphernalia” 

      5. “Drug testing supplies” 

      6. “Harm reduction”

      7. “Prevention supplies/items” 

      8. “Needle” and “syringe” and “hypodermic”

      9. “Collection boxes”

      10. “Syringe exchange” and “syringe services”

      11. “Drug use supplies” 

      12. Over 500 feet from schools, parks, and daycares

    • Note: You may not find many ordinances that potentially violate federal law under the framework explored in Gather Church. That is perfectly fine. It is still valuable for AHRLA to know  whether any ordinances do or do not exist that may violate that reasoning for each municipality.

  • Attend Weekly Office Hours

    • Starting September 8, 2026 AHRLA and L4GG staff will be available here every Tuesday at 2 ET to answer questions about this project.. 

  • Compile Your Research

    • We recommend that during the legal research process, you gather your findings in a Word or Google document prior to completing the online form.

  • Links

    • Whenever discussing any ordinances that you find, please provide a link to the ordinance. If you find the ordinance in WestLaw or Lexis please then provide a publicly available link. This allows us to easily add the research to public facing materials for our community.

  • Submit Your Research

    • Once you have completed your research, please copy and paste your findings into the corresponding fields using these online forms corresponding to the state where your municipality is located:

    • Please check your answers for accuracy before pressing “Submit.”

    • Note: L4GG strongly prefers that a single attorney be responsible for filling out one form per municipality.

    • Please submit the completed form online by the deadline communicated to you by your firm pro bono contact.

Questions? Email zane@lawyersforgoodgovernment.org.

Tools:

  1. When starting, we recommend conducting a simple Google search and then reviewing municipal ordinances for relevant keywords and requirements. Such ordinances may be found in a variety of sections of municipal codes, including, but not limited to, health and sanitation, special land use regulations, public health and safety, public peace, morals and welfare, and business regulation.

  2. Bloomberg Law and LexisNexis may also be helpful resources when searching for municipal ordinances. 

  3. A note on using AI - while we recognize that AI can be an effective research tool, and that each of your employers have their own practices with respect to its use, we ask that for the purposes of this project you independently verify any information that is provided to you by an AI tool.

Example ordinances that may violate the legal reasoning in Gather Church: 

  1. https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/anaheim/latest/anaheim_ca/0-0-0-78205 This ordinance explicitly says that “[t]he purpose and intent of this chapter is to prohibit Syringe Exchange Programs from operating in the City of Anaheim.” 

  2. https://www.codepublishing.com/CA/Biggs/html/Biggs07/Biggs0760.html This ordinance explicitly prohibits people from “establish[ing], operat[ing], conduct[ing], or engag[ing] in a needle exchange program” 

  3. https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/chico/latest/chico_ca/0-0-0-29228#JD_Chapter9.29 . (“No person may conduct, operate, or engage in any syringe exchange program, including any staff providing syringe exchange services, or any participant receiving or using syringe exchange services, within a six hundred (600) foot radius of any public or private school, child day care center, playground, public park, youth center, or library.”)

  4. https://library.qcode.us/lib/costa_mesa_ca/pub/municipal_code/item/title_13-chapter_ix-article_23?view=all  This ordinance restricts syringe programs from “any public and/or private property, including, but not limited to, a public street, alley, sidewalk or right-of-way, is prohibited in all locations, areas and/or zoning districts within the city.”

  5. https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/eureka/latest/eureka_ca/0-0-0-58151 (“SEPs are not allowed to operate within 1,000 feet of a City Park and elementary and/or secondary school meeting all of the requirements of the compulsory education laws of the state or a licensed day care center, except for mobile outreach workers.” )

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

(PLEASE REMEMBER TO INCLUDE LINKS WHEN AVAILABLE FOR EACH OF YOUR ANSWERS)

For your assigned municipality, please answer the following questions:

Did you find an ordinance that may run afoul of Gather Church? (Yes/No)

  • (If Yes) Provide the title and number of the ordinance that may run afoul of Gather Church.

  • (If Yes) Provide the publicly available link to the ordinance.

  • (If Yes) What language or provision is problematic?

  • (If Yes) Why? Notes & Thoughts.

Once you have completed your research, please submit your responses (with links) using the applicable online form linked in the instructions. Thank you for contributing to this important project.