ENABLING ADDICTION

There is no other way to say it: The Allegheny County Health Department,
voting 8-0, is officially complicit in the use of illegal drugs.

The board has sanctioned the underground Prevention Point Pittsburgh
needle-exchange program. Needle exchanges are illegal in Pennsylvania
unless there is a declaration of a public health emergency. The department
did so last fall.

Under a liberal, prevailing, but highly suspect credo, the distribution of
clean needles to drug addicts will diminish the spread of blood-borne
diseases, such as the AIDs virus, through needle- sharing. The science does
not support this article of faith.

In a subculture defined by spectacularly risky behavior, controlling for
only one risk variable - the use of clean needles - may be impossible. In
addition, free needles may promote a coalescence of users, attracting
isolated addicts into a crescendo of vice that exacerbates the threat to
public health and the spread of disease.

In a time of "enlightenment" when the public health and legal communities
are pressuring mightily against the use of tobacco and misuse of alcohol, a
tacit acceptance of drugs flies in the face of responsible public policy.

Outreach and treatment, and yes, moral condemnation, are required at vastly
higher levels than we see today. Enabling addiction with free needles
doesn't belong.