Buzzfeed West Virginia Is Trying To Block Needle Exchanges Amid The Worst HIV Outbreak In The US Meanwhile, as needle exchanges grow nationwide, similar disputes have flared up in California and Washington state. “It’s easy to beat up on West Virginia, but this is a nationwide problem, and these kinds of disputes are happening all over the country,” Leo Beletsky, a public health law expert at Northeastern University, told BuzzFeed News.