Thirty years after his graphic harm reduction campaigns burst onto the scene, Michael Linnell’s work still has the capacity to shock. Is it the graphic drawings? Is it the confrontation of difficult and taboo subject matter? Or is it the fact that he refused to be deterred in creating campaigns for ‘the most marginalised and stigmatised’ in society? How many of us would have given up at the threat of prosecution, the press attacks, the repeated obstruction?
Read about the results that spurred him on – such as the wider provision of injecting equipment at needle exchanges – and ask whether ‘crossing the line’ can sometimes be worth the controversy when it takes away a barrier to public health.