FREE NEEDLES MEAN REAL HELP

Riverside County's top health official, Public Health Officer Gary Feldman,
is pitting his agenda against the sheriff and district attorney in a battle
over a needle exchange program.

Feldman notes surging hepatitis C rates among his top reasons for proposing
allowing drug addicts access to clean needles. Needles are often shared by
intravenous drug users, which spreads fatal blood-born diseases such as
hepatitis C and HIV.

Programs that allow addicts to exchange dirty needles for clean needles have
already been proven successful in California.

In 1990, San Francisco initiated an underground needle exchange program. It
was illegal, but it operated with the express backing of the mayor and the
approval of police and was found to be highly effective in reducing risky
behavior among drug addicts.

In 1994, the Journal of the American Medical Association published research
that led doctors in Los Angeles to call for a similar program that has also
met with success.

The report included interviews of 5,644 intravenous drug users by
researchers from UC San Francisco. The researchers found that as
participation in the needle exchange program went up, the percentage of
addicts who shared syringes went down from 66 percent before the program's
initiation, to 35 percent in 1994. The report also concluded that the
average age of intravenous drug users had increased, while the number of
first-time drug users dropped dramatically -- indicating that needle
exchange programs do not entice young people into a life of drug abuse.

Riverside County is home to an estimated 12,000 intravenous-drug abusers,
according to the county Community Health Agency. About 60 percent of
hepatitis C cases and 23 percent of AIDS cases across the county can be
attributed to sharing syringes, rates higher than the state's according to
county and state documents.

Based on the evidence from San Francisco, Riverside Country could benefit
from some form of needle exchange program. Officials need to shed their
narrow-minded reaction to the thought of accepting and dealing with drug
use. It is obviously not working to outlaw all drugs and imprison those who
are found to be users.

We have a real problem on our hands and we must do what we can to prevent
diseases from spreading from the drug culture to the outside population.

"Feldman said the disease prevention benefits are not limited to drug
abusers, because the infections they pick up are passed along to the general
population," The L.A. Times reported.

"It's not as if the drug users aren't sons, mothers, fathers, and everyone
else," Feldman told the L.A. Times. "They interact with non-drug users every
day."

Drug use is a reality in our society. Paranoia and criminalization are not
the answers to helping people with real addictions. Everyone has their own
addictions -- some of us have alcohol problems, others are addicted to
prescription medication, some people tear their families apart because they
are addicted to work and money, but these are more socially acceptable. We
cannot dismiss an entire group because we feel like they are worth less.
Handing out needles is simply one step in the thousand mile journey, but at
least it is a step in the right direction -- that of acknowledgement and
compassion.