The man who started the Church of Safe Injection has died of a possible drug overdose.
Jesse Harvey was a recovery coach who started a mobile program to distribute sterile needles. He was eventually ordered by police and state health officials to stop because the program was illegal.
Harvey also started Journey House, which operates four recovery houses in southern and central Maine.
"Everybody is just really sad to hear the news,” says Ashley Reny, who took over as executive director for Journey House about a year ago after Harvey stepped down. “I think whether being a part of Journey House or not, he was very well known in the state of Maine as whole to many people in recovery."
"He did a lot of good things he did while he was sober, and we're very grateful for the work he did to put so many projects in motion,” Reny says. “It's been over a year since any of us have worked with him on anything, and it's just really sad to see his life come to an end like this so young."
Reny says recovery is a daily struggle, whether a person has been sober for days, months or years. Harvey was 28.
