Though Louise Mae Beale Vincent was a woman small in stature, she left a monumental legacy in her 49 years.
The Greensboro native became an unlikely international force, a giant in the harm-reduction movement who pushed throughout her life against society’s dehumanization, isolation and rejection of drug users.
Vincent, a self-described on-again, off-again heroin user who battled addiction herself, was a fierce and persuasive advocate for needle exchanges, the overdose reversal drug naloxone, checking the contents of street drugs with a mass spectrometer and other methods to help keep people with addictions alive so they have a chance at recovery…