UNSOUND NEEDLE DECISION

Balderdash! So the Fresno County Board of Supervisors voted to
withdraw support for the needle exchange because, as Supervisor Judy
Case says, "I just think providing needles to addicts is enabling." As
a nurse, she should be better acquainted with the behavior of addicts.
They don't stop shooting up because they don't have a clean needle.

The supervisors effectively voted for more and more taxpayer money to
pay for the very costly care of more and more addicts who contract HIV
and hepatitis C from dirty needles. What kind of convoluted thinking
is that?

Several years ago, I volunteered for the Fresno Free Medical Clinic.
In addition to treating addicts for abscesses and infections, we
offered good information and concrete advice about how and where to
quit drugs when the addicts were ready to quit drugs. Until they were
ready to quit, clean needles from the needle exchange were the best
preventative to keep addicts from contracting dreadful and very
expensive diseases.

Janet Moore, R.N.

Fresno