A few days ago, after I heard the news that Congress had lifted a federal ban on funding for needle exchange programs, I called Alisa Solberg. She runs the Point Defiance AIDS Projects in Tacoma, Washington, which includes the oldest legally sanctioned needle exchange program in the country. With the ban gone, I wanted to know what it felt like to have the government accept what the evidence has shown for two decades: that needle exchanges can be a good way to prevent the spread of HIV and don’t increase drug abuse.