ENDING NEEDLE DISTRIBUTION DOESN'T FIX SOCIAL PROBLEM

Re: Taxpayers right to protest if social programs off track (SP, June 9). I can
understand why people are angry at needle distribution program,
because they see it as
promoting an unwholesome lifestyle of addiction.

Unfortunately, if this program did not exist, the junkies and drug
dealers would not disappear magically. They still would be around and
using dirty needles much more often than they do already, worsening
the devastating problem of diseases such as hepatitis C and AIDS.

The expense of funding the needle program is much less than the added
expense to our already overburdened health-care system of not
providing the needles. The needle distribution program is about taking
preventive measures, not sweeping the problems (the poverty and
addictions that often go hand in hand) under the carpet as it's often
done in Saskatoon.

Jonathon Livingston

Saskatoon