NEEDLE POINTS

Political Posturing Makes The Lives Of Drug Addicts Even Less Healthy

OUT of all the unbecoming parts of drug addiction, the search for clean
needles is particularly ghastly. Dirty needles account for a third of all
reported AIDS cases: they also explain why half of all long-term addicts
get hepatitis C.

California is particularly lethal in this respect. A few counties boast
needle-exchange programmes, but owning syringes is still illegal (and
police often wait around the exchanges and confiscate needles). According
to a new report from Human Rights Watch, most Californian junkies either
share syringes or dig used needles out of garbage dumpsters. So you would
imagine widespread acceptance for a bill that California's state Senate
passed on September 4th, which would authorise pharmacies to sell anybody
30 syringes without the need for a prescription, and allow that person to
own them.

In fact, California's governor, Gray Davis, vetoed a similar proposal last
year--and may do so again. He is hardly on a limb. The use of federal money
to support needle-exchange programmes has been banned since 1988. Most
states prohibit the unauthorised possession of syringes, and only three ban
police from arresting people with needles from exchange programmes.

Many politicians, including George Bush, claim needle exchanges undermine
the war on drugs. This mantra lacks but one thing: evidence to support it.
Studies show the provision of clean needles does not increase either crime
or drug use. On the other side, there is no end of evidence that dirty
needles cost a lot of taxpayers' money in AIDS treatment, and shorten many
lives.