ADDICTS, NEEDLES, BLAME

The May 29 letter "Needles offer health, hope" was just one more example of
an individual decrying sound rationale in the name of some kind of knee-jerk
morality. The author claims that by denying clean needles to drug addicts,
we would be violating the Judeo-Christian commandment "Thou shalt not kill."

Sound rationale would tell you that in the absence of clean needles, the
addict himself makes the decision to continue risking death by using dirty
needles or to remove himself from that dangerous lifestyle. But the author
would have us believe that we are the ones condemning the addicts to death
by not providing them with clean needles. His point is devoid of any
recognition of the personal responsibility that we must all take in our own
lives. We don't kill the addicts; they kill themselves.

The reality is that providing clean needles to drug addicts is a
subsidization of the drug culture and should not be tolerated.

Matthew Thome

East Lansing