NEEDLE HAPPY

New Canadian prisoners are welcomed into jail with gift baskets of condoms,
dental dams and safe-sex guides -- even though sex among inmates is
officially forbidden.

This week the Correctional Service of Canada proposed another "progressive"
policy. It issued an internal study saying free needle exchange programs
and tattooing services would help stop the epidemic of infectious disease
among prison inmates -- despite an allegedly "zero tolerance" for illicit
drug use in prison.

Their logic? The study's authors found that current prison policy -- which
makes bleach kits available to prisoners for polishing their dirty needles
- -- has failed to prevent the transmission of hepatitis C or HIV.
Incredibly, the Correctional Service used this finding to justify expanding
needle exchange programs -- rather than jettisoning them altogether.

But since when did we send people to prison to minister to their bad
habits? According to the latest research, needle exchange programs increase
illegal drug use, not lower it. A 1998 Montreal study found that those who
attended needle exchange programs had a substantially higher risk of HIV
infection than intravenous drug addicts who did not. Julie Bruneau, the
study's author, reported that addicts who were HIV-negative were more
likely to become positive after participation in the needle exchange.

Not everyone agrees with this assessment. The trouble is, no study has used
the gold standard for settling such disputes: a randomized control trial.
Until that happens, there is no credible scientific basis for needle
exchange programs, in prison or elsewhere. This is especially true when
there is good evidence that dispensing needles to the addicted could place
them at greater risk for HIV and give further legitimacy to hard drug use.

Canadian prisons should not be in the dope-dealing business. Nor carry out
death sentences when the courts have not imposed them.