Statement on Needle Exchange
AIDS Treatment News sent the following letter to California Governor Gray Davis, on July 30, 1999.We do not usually publish articles on needle exchange, but this letter includes two unusual arguments we want to bring to wider attention. One is that needle exchange programs protect the public by reducing the number of infected needles in circulation. While the reduction of risk from needles which are disposed of improperly may be small, this argument addresses an anxiety which comes from a non-quantitative part of the mind--by providing reassurance that the interests of the public at large are being addressed by needle exchange, not only the interests of intravenous drug users, whom many people dislike.
Also note the political-trophy analysis showing why this issue will be viewed differently by history than it is viewed today (in case Governor Davis is concerned about his legacy, as many leaders are). Needle exchange, like medical marijuana, is controversial in the U.S. because it has become a trophy of drug warriors, who need a victory to show that they are potent and winning. In the longer view of history, this trophy dynamic will be largely absent, while the public-health and human-compassion cases for needle exchange and medical marijuana will remain.
AIDS Treatment News strongly supports AB 518 (allowing needle exchange programs in jurisdictions which choose to use them), and we urge you to sign it when it reaches your desk.
The evidence is overwhelming that needle exchange reduces HIV infection, and does not increase drug abuse. The main value of needle exchange is to get people who are using injection drugs into social services and medical care. Also, these programs remove infected needles from circulation, helping to protect the public as well as drug users from risk of HIV infection.
Needle exchange programs, when and where they are necessary, can save thousands of lives and many millions of dollars in expenses. They have been controversial mainly because of their sound-bite representation (of government giving needles to addicts). Needle exchange has also become a political football, a trophy of victory or defeat for people who made up their minds long ago, before current evidence was available.
When history is written, the sound bites and trophies will be gone, and everyone will see that this indiscriminate prohibition has sacrificed thousands of lives for no purpose.
Sincerely yours, John S. James, Editor and publisher, AIDS Treatment News.
