Safe Shooter : Hollywood 18-Year-Old Becomes a One-Woman Needle Exchange

At 18, Cera is a careful woman. She avoids the noonday sun, takes vitamins and doesn’t drink water from the tap.

And she never, ever shares her needles. “That,” she says, “would be suicide.”

About nine months ago, Cera (not her real name) began helping her friends become more health-conscious by turning them on to “safe shooting” and swapping their dirty needles for clean ones.

Cera, like the dozens of young people she helps as a volunteer for Clean Needles Now, injects not heroin but crystal methamphetamine, a powdered “crank” favored among some Rave party-goers for recreational use.

From Cera’s vantage point, crystal’s popularity is exploding among Valley teen-agers. “I’d say it’s like tripled,” says the former Valley girl.

Today, in her Hollywood apartment, Cera is a one-woman needle exchange.

The second drawer of her white bureau is filled with needles, alcohol wipes and condoms--all of which she gives out free. In accordance with Clean Needles Now guidelines, she requires her clients to turn in their used needles before they can receive new ones.

The young people who use Cera’s round-the-clock service range from a 14-year-old junior high dropout to a young science Ph.D. Some of those she sees still live at home, and it is not unusual, she says, for parents to occasionally confiscate the clean needles she has provided.

“There is a tremendous need for clean, safe equipment among these kids,” says Cera, who works three part-time jobs but hopes to return to school and become a social worker.

“I can’t tell you the number of times I have been approached at parties and asked for a needle-- any needle. You see people fighting over one old, dull and probably really dirty needle. I’ve been places where 25 people are using two needles. . . .

“This is so dangerous, but around here, it can be harder to get needles than drugs!”

Cera has grown bored with crystal and says she’s far more interested in expanding her work for the needle exchange.

“Some people think Clean Needles Now glamorizes drug use. But it doesn’t; it just sanitizes it.”