NEEDLE EXCHANGE IS A NECESSITY

Despite its rural charms, the City of Kawartha Lakes has problems more
often associated with big-city life.

Such as intravenous drug use.

It came as quite a surprise to This Week to learn that a needle exchange
operating in Lindsay swaps about 5,300 new needles for old ones yearly,
servicing about 150 intravenous drug users in our community.

The Lindsay site is one of 10 in our part of the province operated by a
group of agencies that includes the Peterborough AIDS Research Network
(PARN), and Fourcast Addiction Services.

The program, which runs on less than $10,000 per year, is intended to
combat the spread of diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C which can occur
when intravenous drug users share needles.

The exchange also helps keeps discarded needles from being picked up by
children in our community.

The local health unit is being asked to contribute about $800 to the
program, money we think would be well spent.

We know how easy it is to be critical about the lifestyle choices of those
who use the needle exchange.

Intravenous drug use is devastating at the individual level and creates
social costs as well, in added health-care needs required by users, the
potential spread of disease, and the potential for criminal activities
required to pay for drugs.

We also have to point out that, in many cases, the drugs used intravenously
are themselves illegal narcotics.

But we acknowledge that, in their own way, the users who swap needles at
the exchange are trying to take some responsibility for their actions and
their consequences.

And any act of responsibility, even when it's associated with activities
the rest of us may frown on, should be encouraged particularly in light of
the potential healthcare savings down the road.

The more disturbing reality is that there are probably intravenous drug
users in our community who don't use the needle exchange.

They're the ones we hope read this editorial, and the story in today's
paper, and perhaps get the message that they too should become a little
more responsible for their lives.

Intravenous drug usage isn't a pleasant subject but it, too, is a fact in
our communities, no matter how isolated we may think we are here in
small-town Ontario.