Needle exchange
The spread of infectious diseases like AIDS and hepatitis
through syringe sharing by injection drug users is one of
the most serious threats to public health being faced today.
As of June 1997, 221,000 people, making up more than a third
of all reported AIDS cases in the U.S., had contracted AIDS
directly or indirectly through shared syringes -- drug injectors,
their sexual partners, and their children -- and 128,000 had
died.
Today's extensive needle sharing and its deadly consequences
are a result of the War on Drugs. In the U.S. and time and
again worldwide, drug crackdowns have sparked the popularization
of extremely potent forms of drug-taking like heroin injection.
State laws prohibiting syringe sales without a prescription,
or possession of a syringe for the purpose of injecting illegal
drugs, have made sterile syringes hard to come by and led
to massive sharing and spread of deadly diseases at epidemic
levels. In minority populations that are subjected to massive
police presence, injectors avoid carrying syringes for more
than minimal period of time, in order to avoid arrest, but
thereby causing needle sharing to occur with even greater
frequency. An African American drug injector is almost five
times as likely to be diagnosed with AIDS as a white drug
injector, and a Latino drug injector is more than three times
more likely.
Overwhelming scientific evidence has shown that needle exchange
programs, and pharmacy syringe availability, reduce the spread
of disease without increasing the use of drugs; conversely,
laws prohibiting syringes distribution, and police actions
against needle exchange programs, increase the spread of AIDS
and cause needless loss of life. Yet infectious diseases are
now seen as a weapon in the war on drugs, and various elected
officials have stated outright that they see the risk of AIDS
as a useful deterrent to the use of drugs.
Drug warriors say they are fighting "for the children,"
but current policies are killing children with infected needles.
As of June 1997, more than half of all children born with
AIDS were the children of drug injectors or their sexual partners.
(Data from "Health Emergency," the Dogwood Center,
and "Syringe Availability Factsheet," the Lindesmith
Center.)
More information could be found here
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