NEEDLE EXCHANGE HELPS US ALL

The city of Portland should definitely fund needle exchange programs such
as Outside In. Such programs have been proven to reduce the spread of HIV
without increasing drug use. They also serve as a bridge to drug treatment
for an especially hard-to-reach population.

Drug users are not the only beneficiaries. U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention researchers estimate that 57 percent of AIDS cases among
women and 36 percent of overall AIDS cases in the United States are linked
to injection drug use or sex with partners who inject drugs.

This easily preventable public health crisis is a direct result of zero
tolerance laws that restrict access to clean syringes. In the interest of
containing the HIV epidemic, let's hope tough-on-drugs politicians
acknowledge the drug war's tremendous collateral damage sooner rather than
later.

ROBERT SHARPE, MPA Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C.