CLEAN NEEDLE EXCHANGES DO NOT FACILITATE ADDICTION

Re: "Premature act" (Editorial, Dec. 17):

Your attitude on distributing clean needles to drug addicts seems to be:
Since being an addict is harmful to one's health, we might as well make it
worse by denying access to clean needles.

You state, "Exchanges promote the even larger dangers that drug abuse
inflicts on addicts, such as fatal overdoses and suicides." Can you really
believe that providing clean needles promotes drug addiction? That people
decide whether or not to become addicts based on the availability of clean
needles? Are you seriously suggesting that addicts would say, "Gee, since I
can't get a clean needle, I'll just stop being an addict, and therefore
eliminate the risk of a fatal overdose?"

You imply that a policy of disallowing a needle exchange program is
humanitarian, and even helpful to drug addicts, when in reality it is
merely punitive and mean-spirited.

Tom Saladino, San Diego